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MILTON'S COMUS, LYCIDAS 

AND OTHER POEMS 



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MILTON'S 
COMUS, LYCIDAS 

AND OTHER POEMS 

AND 

MATTHEW ARNOLD'S ADDRESS ON MILTON 

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

BY 

SAMUEL EDWARD ALLEN, A.M. 

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, WILLIAMS COLLEGE 



Ncto gork 

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CCU3U".t6G7 



As good almost kill a man as kill a ^ood book : who kills a 
man kills a reasonable creature, God's image ; but he who 
destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, 
as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth ; 
but a good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, 
embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. 

— Areopagitica. 



PREFACE 

Matthew Arnold's address at the unveiling of 
the Milton Memorial Window in S. Margaret's 
Church, Westminster, is included in the introduc- 
tion because of its especial interest to American 
students of Milton. 

The text contains several of Milton's poems not 
in the college entrance requirements. The teacher 
should encourage his pupils to read them, as well as 
others not given here. All the poems should be 
read once or twice without reference to the notes, 
and simply for the sake of understanding them in 
general and enjoying them. The Lady Alice was 
fourteen when she acted her part in Comus; her 
brothers were younger ; and they had no annotated 
edition. 

I have attempted to furnish all the historical, 
biographical, and critical material necessary for an 
understanding of the poems, but not to usurp the 
place of the teacher. He will, it is very likely, omit 
parts of the material here presented and amplify 



X PREFACE 

others. I have made no attempt at appreciation or 
at such subjects as an examination of Milton's vocab- 
ulary, for example, his double epithets. These the 
teacher will bring out in the classroom. A dis- 
cussion of them may well accompany the reading 
aloud of the poems. Such a reading will help the 
pupil not only to appreciate these poems, but to use 
his own language more artistically and intelligently. 
In places the notes are somewhat dogmatic. If 
two or more explanations of a difficult passage are 
equally probable and satisfactory, one gains little 
and loses much by putting them all before the 
young student. The teacher will as a matter of 
course consult various editions and get the opinions 
of all the authorities. 

Good histories of the period in which Milton lived 
are Green's History of the English People (The 
Macmillan Company), and Gardiner's The Puritan 
Revolution (Longmans). The shorter histories by 
the same authors will satisfy those pressed for time. 
The authoritative biography of Milton is, of 
course. Professor Masson's Life of Milton: nar- 
rated in connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, 
and Literary History of his Time, published in six 



PREFACE XI 

volumes by The Macmillan Company. Briefer 
biographies are John Milton, by Professor W. P. 
Trent (The Macmillan Company) ; John Milton, 
by Mark Pattison, in the Enghsh Men of Letters 
(Harpers) ; Milton, by Dr. Richard Garnett, in the 
Great Writers Series (Walter Scott) ; and Milton, 
by Stopford A. Brooke, in Classical Writers (D. 
Appleton) . The Cambridge History of English Liter- 
ature, Vol. VII, contains an interesting account of 
Milton, but inaccurate in details. This and Dr. 
Garnett's biography furnish good bibliographies. 

In preparing the introduction and notes I have 
consulted many editions of the poems. But I have 
turned most often to Professor Masson's edition in 
three volumes, published by The Macmillan Company, 
to Mr. Verity's (Cambridge University Press), to 
Professor Trent's (Longmans), and Professor Neil- 
son's (Scott, Forsman). I am indebted to my 
colleague, Dr. George B. Dutton, who read and 
criticised the introduction ; and to my wife, who has 
been my critic and assistant throughout the work. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Pkeface .......... ix 

Introduction 

I. Historical Background xv 

II. Political and Social Aspects of Milton's Minor 

Poems . ^ . . . . . . . xxvi 

III. Life of Milton xxx 

IV. U Allegro and // Penseroso . . . xlviii 
V. Ai'cndes 1 

VI. Comus lii 

VII. The Masque Iv 

VIII. Lycidas Ix 

Matthew Arnold's Address on Milton . . . Ixv 
Humphrey Moseley's Preface to the First Edition 

OF Milton's Poems ...... Ixxvi 

Poems 

At a Solemn Music 1 

On Shakespeare ........ 3 

^ L' Allegro ■. . 4 

_ II Penseroso 11 

— Arcades 19 

^^-~ Comus 25 

^ Lycidas ......... 78 

On his Blindness ....... 87 

On his Deceased Wife 88 

Notes .......... 89 

Index ... .... ... 155 

xiii 



INTRODUCTION 
I. Historical Background 

To understand the life of Milton and to appre- 
ciate his writings one must know something of the 
history of England during the first sixty years of 
the seventeenth century. Each one of his poems re- 
flects either the ecclesiastical or the political history 
of the particular time in which it was written. From 
U Allegro to Lycidas the careful reader can trace 
the evolution of Milton from a high-minded Eliza- 
bethan, enjoying all the legitimate pleasures of an 
Elizabethan, to a stern Puritan, thundering con- 
demnation of the corrupt clergy of the Established 
Church. 

Between Milton's birth in 1608 and the execution 
of Charles I. in 1649 two struggles combined to 
agitate England. The first was ecclesiastical ; the 
second political. These struggles did not originate 
during the life of Milton; the seeds of them had 
been sown long before. During the reign of Mary 

XV 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

(1553-1558) many persecuted Protestants fled to 
the continent. There they learned the discipline 
and doctrines of Calvinism, among them the stern 
theory of predestination. The form of worship 
which they had adopted emphasized the intellectual 
side of rehgion to the exclusion of the emotional. 
To the intellect the surplice, kneeling and bowing 
in devotion, stained glass windows, — ceremony and 
form in general, — make but a weak appeal. Their 
appeal is to the emotions. To the Calvinist they 
were besides objectionable because they were used 
in the Church of Rome. With the abatement of 
persecution at the accession of Elizabeth, many of 
these Protestants returned from the continent, 
bringing with them their newly acquired hatred of 
the ceremonial of the Church of England. Further- 
more, they objected to bishops and archbishops, as 
savoring of Popery. But as late as 1603 only a 
tenth, or thereabouts, of the members of the Es- 
tablished Church objected to the accustomed ritual 
and government. 

There were thus within the National Church two 
fairly distinct bodies. The minority wished to 
bring the Church into harmony with Calvin's sys- 



INTRODUCTION XVll 

tern, a system similar to that of the Presbyterian 
Church as we know it. The majority, however, 
was content to observe the ceremonies of the Church 
as they had been observed in the reign of Ehzabeth. 
Outside the Church were the Roman CathoHcs and 
the Protestant non-conformists or Separatists. Of 
these last were the first settlers of New England. 
They believed the Church to be hopelessly corrupt. 
In his youth and young manhood Milton, like his 
father, belonged to the Estabhshed Church. Later 
he favored successively the Presbyterians and the 
Separatists or Independents. Both Roman Catho- 
Hcs and Separatists, as the needs of the government 
demanded, were persecuted during the reign of Eliza- 
beth. For example, the Catholics suffered in 1588 
when the Spanish invasion was threatening. Eliza- 
beth was opposed to the Calvinists, too, and mainly 
for political reasons. Through the bishops of the 
Church of England, who were appointed by the 
Crown, she could control the clergy and thus rule 
the Church. A Presbyterian church, being practi- 
cally a democracy, would be a menace to her power. 
The second struggle mentioned above was between 
the people and the sovereign, or, more strictly speak- 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

ing, between the Parliament and the sovereign. 
Under the Tudors Parliament was weak. Even in 
the reign of Elizabeth, however, there were signs 
of the coming struggle. But Ehzabeth ruled too 
wisely, responded too promptly to the demands of 
her people, to let it become formidable. At her 
death England was still a unit ; she had for the most 
part reigned in ''harmony with popular sentiment." 
Wlien James I. came to the throne of England in 
1603, he had irumediately to consider the religious 
question. About eight hundred Puritan clergj-men 
petitioned him for reforms within the Church. They 
wished him to forbid clergj^nen to hold appoint- 
ments in two or more parishes, accept the salaries 
themselves, and appoint vicars at small salaries to 
do the work. They criticised many of the clergy 
as inefficient in that they could not or did not preach. 
And they asked for liberty. Each clergj-Tnan, they 
thought, should decide for himself whether or not 
he would wear a surplice and observe the prescribed 
forms. Their principal demands James scornfully 
rejected. And about three hundred clergj-men who 
refused to conform were ejected from their livings. 
But as the Purftans were at this time comparatively 



INTRODVCTIOX xix 

few, they did not, seemingly at least, menace the 
throne. Furthermore, the appointment of Abbott 
as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1610 quieted many 
of the reformers. He was lax in discipline, and 
winked at Puritan deviations from the forms of the 
Church. 

James had trouble also with the Roman Catholics. 
Early in his reign he remitted fines on Roman Catho- 
lic Recusants, those Cathohcs who refused to at- 
tend the services of the Established Church. The 
result was a very large increase in the number of 
Recusants. Alarmed, James banished Roman Cath- 
olic priests from London. This incited a Catholic 
plot, known as the Gmipowder Plot, to blow up the 
Parliament builchng and kill the members of ParHa- 
ment as well as the Iving. The discovery of the plot 
led to violent persecution of the Church blamed 
for it. Meanwhile James had quarrelled with his 
Parliaments. Because he had a family, he needed 
more money than Elizabeth had needed. But his 
first Parliament, dissatisfied vriXh his treatment of 
the Puritans and with the favors he showered on the 
Scotchmen who had followed him to England, dis- 
regarded his wants. Not being granted sufficient 



XX INTRODUCTION 

revenues by Parliament, James on his own authority 
levied duties on imports. He bargained with the 
Parliament concerning the surrender of the right he 
claimed to levy these duties, quarrelled with it on 
various subjects, and in 1611 dissolved it in anger, 
leaving the vexatious questions unsettled. As the 
reign of James began, so it continued and ended. 
He opposed a growing body of Puritans in the 
Church; he spent more than his income, raised 
money in ways not approved by his Parliaments, 
and consequently quarrelled with them. There- 
fore at his death in 1625 he left to his son Charles 
I. a kingdom torn by dissensions. 

Charles lacked energy and capacity. He had 
not the tact and charity and love for his people 
necessary to reunite the nation. Like his father, he 
believed in the divine right of kings ; he was obsti- 
nate in his adherence to his policies ; he was not 
to be trusted; he made promises with no idea of 
keeping them. His first Parliament refused to 
vote sufficient money for him unless he would give 
up his leading adviser, Buckingham, and would 
select counsellors . that it could trust. Charles 
had inherited with additions the distrust which 



INTRODUCTION XXI 

the nation had conceived for his father. It sus- 
pected that Charles, because he had married the 
French Princess Henrietta Maria, who was a Roman 
Cathohc, would favor the Catholics. Charles, how- 
ever, was willinji; to persecute the Catholics, but 
not to allow Parliament a voice in the selection of 
his counsellors. In other words, he was not will- 
ing that Parliament rather than King should govern 
England. In the hope that a new Parliament 
would be more complaisant, he dissolved the first. 
But the second Parliament proceeded at once to 
impeach Buckingham, and was soon dissolved. 
Then for about two years (1626-1628) Charles 
ruled without a Parliament. He raised money by 
forced loans and by other means which to most 
Englishmen seemed illegal. Five knights who re- 
fused to pay the forced loan were imprisoned. 

With the third Parliament which met in 1638 
Charles had more trouble than with the first two, and 
in 1639 he dissolved it. For the next eleven years 
England with no Parliament had an experience of 
personal government. Charles ruled by means of 
the Star Chamber, a court which was merely an 
instrument for enforcing his will. He levied taxes 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

without a Parliamentary grant, and thus goaded his 
people to desperation, for illegal taxation has always 
been to an Englishman the most irritating kind of 
tyranny. John Hampden, by refusing to pay a tax 
called ship-money, made himself a popular hero. 
The breach between King and people widened 
rapidly. 

The religious quarrel continually increased in 
bitterness. Theology agitated all England. Before 
the death of James, many of the clergy and of the 
laity had accepted the doctrines of Arminianism, 
which opposed Calvinism in many places, especially, 
though, with reference to predestination. James, 
who was a Calvinist, had opposed the new doctrine, 
but Charles favored Arminianism. And his first 
Parliament impeached his Chaplain, Montague, for 
holding that doctrine. In 1628 Charles forbade any 
one to speak in public on the disputed points. This 
of course caused dissatisfaction. In all matters 
relating to the Church Charles followed the advice 
of William Laud, who became in 1633 Archbishop 
of Canterbury. Laud was a narrow-minded, ex- 
ceedingly energetic man. He aimed to do only a 
few things, and he did them thoroughly. ''I la- 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

boured nothing more," he said, 'Hhan that the ex- 
ternal pubHc worship of God — too much slighted 
in most parts of the Kingdom — might be pre- 
served, and that with as much decency and uni- 
formity as might be." His motto was, '^ Worship 
the Lord in the beauty of holiness." He wished to 
make the Church and the Church service as beautiful 
as possible and the service uniform throughout Eng- 
land. To the Puritan he seemed to be drawing the 
English Church back to Romanism, ^' the grim wolf 
with privy paw." Probably Laud did more than 
any other person to bring about the Civil War. In 
1637 the Bishops of the Scottish Church, acting 
in part at least under Laud's advice, attempted to 
force upon that Church a prayer-book much like the 
English Book of Common Prayer, but more objec- 
tionable to the Puritans. The result was a riot 
in Edinburgh, and the abolition of Episcopacy in 
Scotland by an assembly acting independently of 
Charles. 

Unable himself to put down what was practically 
rebeUion in Scotland, Charles in 1640 called two 
Parliaments, the second of which met in November. 
This is known as the Long Parliament. It sent 



XXIV INTRODUCTION 

Laud to the Tower, and beheaded Strafford, who 
had shared with Laud the position of Charles's chief 
adviser. It passed bills which made impossible 
government by the King without Parliament. Had 
Charles been content to be merely a constitutional 
monarch, the Civil War would probal^ly never have 
taken place. But fresh quarrels with Parliament 
soon occurred. In 1642 Charles entered the House 
of Commons to arrest five members. This ])reach 
of the privileges of Parliament brought to a head 
the troubles which had been agitating England for 
many years. In the war which followed between 
King and Parliament, a war which was caused partly 
by political questions and partly by religious, Charles 
was defeated. In 1649 he was beheaded. 

After the execution of the monarch, the House 
of Commons announced that England had become a 
Commonwealth ''without King or House of Lords," 
that is, it had become a kind of republic. The Com- 
monwealth, however, never had the support of the 
people of England, and could not have stood a month 
without the backing of the army, and especially of 
Cromwell, the head of the army. He put down with 
a savage hand Royalist uprisings in Ireland and in 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

Scotland, and showed himself in all ways master- 
ful. But in 1653 the Parliament acted contrary to 
his plans, and he dissolved it. He and his officers 
then assembled a Parliament, called the Barebone's 
Parliament after Praise-God Barebone, one of its 
members. This body wished to rule England in 
accordance with the will of God, but no two of the 
members agreed as to what that will was. In a few 
months it was dissolved, and Cromwell became Lord 
Protector of England, with all the powers of a King. 
Abroad he waged successful war and gained the re- 
spect of the world; at home his government was a 
failure. During his Protectorate he called two 
Parliaments, and found them both unsatisfactory. 
His ideas were far in advance of his age. Discon- 
tent grew rapidly. But in September, 1658, death 
released him from his troubles. For a few months 
his son Richard succeeded him ; the great majority 
of Englishmen, however, had concluded that the 
only way to turn back the rising tide of anarchy was 
to recall the House of Stuart to the throne. On 
May 29, 1660, Charles II. entered London, while 
practically all England shouted, ''Welcome now, 
great Monarch, to your own." 



XX vi INTRODUCTION 

11. Political and Social Aspects of Milton's 
MiNOK Poems 

"Puritanism, when Milton began to write, was 
not universally apart from literature and the fine 
arts. In its staid and pure religion Milton's work had 
its foundation, but the temple he had begun to build 
upon it was quarried from the ancient and modern 
arts and letters of Greece and Italy and England. 
And filling the temple rose the peculiar incense of 
the Renaissance. The breath of that spirit is felt 
in the classicalism of the Ode to the Nativity, in the 
love proclaimed for Shakespeare, in the graceful 
fancy of the Epitaph to Lady Winchester, and in the 
gaiety of the Ode to a May Morning. But a new 
element, other than any the Renaissance could pro- 
duce, is here ; the element that filled the Psalms of 
David, the deep, personal, passionate rehgion of the 
Puritan, possessing, and possessed by, God. Over 
against the Renaissance musick is set the high and 
devout strain of the first sonnet and of the Odes to 
Time and A Solemn Musick. Even while at Cam- 
bridge, the double being in Milton makes itself felt, 
the struggle between the two spirits of the time is 



^ INTRODUCTION xxvii 

reflected in his work. These contrasted spirits in 
him became defined as the pohtical and social war 
deepened around his fife. The second sonnet still is 
gay, fresh with the morn of love, Petrarca might 
have written it; the Allegro does not disdain the 
love of nature, the rustic sports, the pomp of courts, 
the playhouse and the land of faery, nor does the 
Penseroso refuse to haunt the dim cathedral. But 
yet, in these two poems more than in the Cambridge 
poems, the deepening of the struggle is felt. Milton 
seems to presage in them that the time would come 
when the gaiety of England would cease to be shared 
in by serious men ; when the mirth of the cavalier 
would shut out the pleasures derived from lofty 
Melancholy, because they shut out the devil; as 
the Puritan pensiveness would be driven to shut 
out the pleasures of Mirth, because they shut out 
God. While he gives full weight in the Allegro to 
''unreproved pleasures free," he makes it plain in 
the Penseroso that he prefers the sage and holy 
pleasures of thoughtful sadness. These best befitted 
the solemn aspect of the time. A few years later, 
and the presage had come true. Milton is driven 
away from even the Allegro point of view. In 



xxviu INTRODUCTION 

Comus the wild license of the court society is set 
over against the grave and temperate virtue of a 
Puritan life. The unchastity, the glozing lies, the 
glistering apparel that hid moral deformity, the 
sloth and drunkenness, the light fantastic round of 
the enchanter's character and court, are (it seems 
likely) Milton's allegory of the court society of his 
time. The stately philosophy of the Brothers which 
had its root in subduing passion and its top in the 
love of God ; the virginal chastity of the lady, and 
at the end the releasing power of Sabrina's purity, 
exalt and fill up more sternly the idea of the Pen- 
seroso and symbolise that noble Puritanism which 
loved learning and beauty only when they were 
pure, but holiness far more than either. It may be, 
as Mr. Browne supports, that there is a second alle- 
gory within the first, of Laud and his party as the 
Sorcerer commending the cup of Rome by wile and 
threat to the lips of the Church and enforcing it by 
fine and imprisonment; paralysing in stony fetters 
the Lady of the Church. It may be that Milton 
called in this poem on the few who, having resisted 
like the Brothers, but failed to set the Church free, 
ought now to employ a new force, the force of Purity ; 



INTRODUCTION xxix 

but this aspect of the struggle is at least not so clear 
in Comus as in Lycidas. In Lycidas Milton has 
thrown away the last shreds of Church and State 
and is Presbyterian. The strife now at hand starts 
into prominence, and not to the bettering of the poem 
as a piece of art. It is brought in — and the fault 
is one which frequently startles us in Milton — 
without any regard to the unity of feeling in the poem. 
The passage on the hireling Church looks like an 
afterthought, and Milton draws attention to it in 
the argument. 'The author ... by occasion fore- 
tells the ruin of our corrupted clergy then in their 
height.' But he does not leave Laud and his policy 
nor the old Church tenderly. When he felt strongly, 
he wrote fiercely. The passage is a splendid and 
a fierce cry of wrath, and the rough trumpet note, 
warlike and unsparing, which it sounds against the 
unfaithful herdsmen who are sped and the 'grim 
wolf with privy paw,' was to ring louder and louder 
through the prose works, and finally to clash in the 
ears of those very Presbyterians whom he now sup- 
ported. There is then a steady progress of thought 
and of change in the poems. The Milton of Lycidas 
is not the Milton of Comus. The Milton of Comus 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

is not the Milton of the Penseroso, less still of the 
Allegro. The Milton of the Penseroso is not the 
Milton of the Ode to the Nativity. Nothing of the 
Renaissance is left now but its learning and its art." ^ 

III. Life of Milton 

The life and hterary career of John Milton fall 
naturally into three periods. The first, which we 
may call the period of his education, extends to his 
return from the continent in 1639. In it he wrote 
the most important of his shorter poems. In the 
second, which ends in 1660, he wrote almost no 
poetry. He was for about ten years an officer of the 
English government; during the entire period he 
was busy writing arguments in prose, both Latin and 
English. From this fact it is often called his prose 
period. In the third, which ends at his death, in 
1674, he wrote Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and 
Samson Agonistes. 

(a) 1608-1639. — John Milton was born in Lon- 
don on the ninth of December, 1608. His father 

1 Milton, by Stopford A. Brooke. Quoted by permission of 
D. Appleton and Company. 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

was John Milton, a scrivener, whose office and 
residence was in Bread Street at the sign of the 
Spread Eagle. A scrivener drew up deeds, con- 
tracts, and other documents of the same kind, and 
lent money on commission. The poet's grandfather 
had in the reign of Elizabeth been fined as a Roman 
Catholic recusant. The poet's father was disowned 
when he joined the Church of England. These 
facts help one to understand the keen interest which 
Milton always felt in rehgious questions. Milton, 
the scrivener, prospered in business, and the youth 
of the poet seems to have been unusually happy. 
The scrivener was a skilful musician, a composer 
of considerable reputation, and even tried his hand 
at poetry. Milton's Latin poem Ad Pair em is a 
tribute to his father's learning and generosity. It 
is only one of many proofs that the father had a 
wonderful influence on his gifted son. Of the 
mother little is known except that she was distin- 
guished ''by the esteem in which she was held and 
the alms which she bestowed." Milton's brother 
Richard studied law, turned Roman Catholic, and 
was knighted by James II. In spite of their dif- 
ferent opinions in politics and religion, the brothers 



xxxil INTRODUCTION 

maintained the pleasantest of relations. Anne, 
Milton's only sister, became Mrs. Phillips, and by 
a second marriage Mrs. Agar. Her two sons by her 
first husband were taught by Milton after his return 
from the continent; one of them is numbered among 
his earliest biographers. The home of the Miltons, 
though Puritan, was not devoid of the ordinary 
pleasures. It had the culture of the Elizabethan 
home of the better class, with the best characteristics 
of Puritanism. 

It helps one to an understanding of Milton's 
writings to remember that he was eight years old 
at the death of Shakespeare. He may even have 
seen the great dramatist on the street, for the famous 
Mermaid Tavern frequented by Shakespeare and 
his friends was on Bread Street. Milton was 
seventeen at the death of Bacon, twenty-seven at 
the death of Ben Jonson. The great poet of Puri- 
tanism hved, therefore, before the Elizabethan spirit 
had waned; he was touched by the intensity and 
largeness of life in the Elizabethan era. U Allegro 
is evidence of that. 

His father provided hberally for his education; 
and the boy proved himself worthy of his father's 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

liberality. ''My appetite for knowledge was," he 
says, ''so voracious, that, from twelve years of age, 
I hardly ever left my studies, or went to bed before 
midnight." Thus began the injury to his eyes which 
resulted in his blindness. He studied first under a 
Presbyterian clergyman, Thomas Young, whom he 
always respected and admired, and later in St. Paul's 
School under Alexander Gill. He read the Latin 
and Greek authors necessary for entrance to the 
university, and ranged at will through the English 
writers. His critics have detected in his works the 
influence of Chaucer, Spenser, Drayton, Drummond 
of Hawthornden, Tasso in Fairfax's translation, 
and Sylvester in the translation of Du Bartas. 

Two influences in Milton's life at St. Paul's School 
are deserving of mention. Here began his friendship 
with the half-Italian Charles Diodati, which con- 
tinued unabated till the untimely death of Diodati in 
1638. Milton's other close friend in the school was 
Alexander Gill the younger, who held the position of 
usher. Something of a poet himself, he had consider- 
able influence on the literary efforts of his pupil. 

Milton entered Christ's College, Cambridge Uni- 
versity, in 1625, received the B.A. degree in 1629, 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

and the M.A. in 1632. He thus spent seven years 
in the University. His Hfe there was not particu- 
larly happy. Soon after his entrance a disagreement 
with his tutor Chappell led to his enforced absence 
from college. As on his return he was assigned to 
a different tutor and did not lose credit for a term's 
work, we may assume that the fault was not entirely 
his. Of the university Milton was severely critical. 
Later in his life he spoke of himself as never greatly 
admiring it. But his diligence and brilliance as a 
student won for him the approbation of the authori- 
ties. He acknowledged ^'publicly, with all grateful 
mind, that more than ordinary favor and respect, 
which I found above any of my equals at the hands 
of those courteous and learned men, the fellows of 
that college wherein I spent seven years : who, at 
my parting, after I had taken two degrees . . . signi- 
fied many ways how much better it would content 
them that I would stay." 

When Milton left the university, he was still un- 
decided as to his life work. His father had expected 
him to become a clergyman of the Church of Eng- 
land. This, however, had become impossible for 
him. His reason for not entering the Church he 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

stated fully. To the service of the Church ^'by the 
intentions of my parents and friends, I was des- 
tined of a child, and in mine own resolutions : till 
coming to some maturity of years, and perceiving 
what tyranny had invaded the church, that he who 
would take orders must subscribe himself slave, 
and take an oath withal, which, unless he took with 
a conscience that would retch, he must either straight 
perjure, or spht his faith; I thought it better to 
prefer a blameless silence before the sacred office of 
speaking, bought and begun with servitude and for- 
swearing/' Thus he was ^'church-outed by the 
prelates," that is, by Laud and his followers. 

Before Milton left college, his father had retired 
from business and moved to Horton in Buckingham- 
shire. This region, according to Professor Masson, 
''is a rich, teeming, verduous flat, charming by its 
appearance of plenty, and by the goodly show of 
wood along the fields and pastures, in the nooks 
where the houses nestle, and everywhere in all direc- 
tions to the sky-bound verge of the landscape. . . . 
There are elms, alders, poplars, and cedars; there 
is no lack of shrubbery and hedging; and in the 
spring the orchards are abloom with white and pink 



XXX vi INTRODUCTION 

for miles around." It was an ideal spot for the writ- 
ing of U Allegro and II Penseroso. In Horton the 
young poet hved five years; he '^ spent a complete 
hohday in reading over the Greek and Latin writers." 
Occasionally he went to London to bu}^ books and 
to take lessons in mathematics or in music, subjects 
in which his interest was keen. 

In the university Milton wrote, besides letters 
and college exercises in Latin and in English, several 
poems which gave promise of greater work to come. 
Of these On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, an ode 
in thirty-one stanzas, is the most noteworthy. 
Others that should be mentioned are At a Solernn 
Musick, and On his Having Arrived at the Age of 
Twenty-three. The latter, because it possesses pe- 
culiar biographical interest, ought to be quoted. It 
was written just before Milton received the M.A. 
degree. 

" How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, 
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year ! 
My hasting days fly on with full career, 
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. 
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, 
That I to manhood am arrived so near. 
And inward ripeness doth much less appear. 
That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. 



INTRODUCTION xxxvu 

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, 

It shall be still in strictest measure even 

To that same lot, however mean or high, 

Towards which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. 

All is, if I have grace to use it so, 

As ever in my great Task-master's eye." 

This sonnet, after Milton had settled in Horton, he 
inserted in a letter to a friend, who evidently had 
written to him a criticism of the seeming aimlessness 
of his hfe. As it was written some time before, it 
showed that the young man had already given 
thought to the subject. The last six lines show 
Milton's supreme confidence in himself, and his de- 
termination not to pluck his laurels untimely. In 
Horton between 1632 and 1G38 he wrote, among 
other poems. To the Nightingale, V Allegro, II Pen- 
seroso. Arcades, Comus, and Lycidas. This is a 
small body of work for five years, but no one con- 
sidering its quality can call those years unproductive. 
About the first of May, 1638, with a man-servant 
Milton left England to travel on the continent. In 
Paris he received distinguished attentions from Lord 
Scudamore, the English Ambassador, and by him 
was introduced to 'Hhat most learned man, Hugo 
Grotius, who was the Ambassador from the Queen 



5cxxviii INTRODUCTION 

of Sweden to the French King." Through Nice, 
Genoa, Leghorn, and Pisa Milton travelled to Flor- 
ence. In that city he remained two months. Ap- 
parently he had good letters of introduction, for in 
the Florentine Academies, or literary clubs, he made 
the acquaintance of ''the noble and learned of the 
city." While there he visited Gahleo, but recently 
freed from imprisonment at Arcetri — imprison- 
ment due to ''thinking in Astronomy otherwise 
than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers 
thought." Thus met the two famous blind men of 
the seventeenth century, for in thirteen years 
Milton was himself to be totally blind. That the 
visit impressed him deeply is proved by the fact 
that twenty years later in writing Paradise Lost he 
mentioned Galileo twice, once by name. In the 
fifth book Raphael from the gate of Heaven sees the 
earth, 

" As when by night the glass 
Of Galileo, less assured, observes 
Imagined lands and regions in the Moon." 

In October Milton went to Rome. Here he at- 
tended a magnificent concert given by Cardinal 
Barberini. At this concert he heard the famous 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

singer, Leonora Baroni, in whose honor he wrote 
three Latin epigrams. He had intended to extend 
his trip to Sicily and Greece ; but in Naples he re- 
ceived news of Charles's troubles with the Scots and 
of the likelihood of civil war; and decided to return 
to England. ''While I was desirous/' he WTites, 
'Ho cross into Sicily and Greece, the sad news of 
Civil War in England called me back; for I con- 
sidered it base that, while my fellow-countrymen 
were fighting at home for liberty, I should be trav- 
elling abroad at ease for intellectual culture." 
Apparently he soon discovered that the tidings were 
exaggerated. He spent a second two months in 
Rome, though he had been warned of danger from 
the Jesuits because of his great freedom in discuss- 
ing religious questions. "I had made these reso- 
lutions with myself," he says, "not of my own ac- 
cord to introduce conversation about religion; but, 
if interrogated respecting the faith, whatsoever I 
should suffer, to dissemble nothing." In Flor- 
ence he again spent two months, and received a 
warm welcome from his friends. Thence he pro- 
ceeded to Paris by way of Venice, Verona, Milan, 
and Geneva. About the first of August he was back 



xl INTRODUCTION 

in England. While on the continent he wrote only 
in Italian and Latin. His poems in these languages 
received enthusiastic praise from the distinguished 
Italians with whom he associated. 

(6) 1639-1660. — Soon after his return to Eng- 
land Milton wrote Epitaphiuin Damonis, a Latin 
elegy on the death of his schoolmate and best of 
friends, Charles Diodati. His grief was more inti- 
mate and personal than that he felt in writing 
Lycidas. Hence as an expression of grief the Latin 
elegy is superior to the Enghsh. Biographically, too, 
the Epitaphium Damonis is interesting because in 
it Milton tells of his plan for writing a great poem. 
This idea never left his mind. In Italy he had told 
of his intention 'Ho leave something behind him so 
written to after times as that they should not 
willingly let it die." In 1639 he was planning to 
choose as his theme the early kings of Britain. He 
announced also in the Epitaphium Damonis his in- 
tention of writing henceforth in Enghsh only. 

At this time the King's war with the Scots, known 
as the First Bishops' War, had just ended. England 
was thrilling with political unrest. But Milton, 
the household at Horton having been broken up, 



INTRODUCTION xli 

took lodgings in London and began preparations for 
his great poem. At this time he became the in- 
structor of his two nephews, Edward and John 
PhiUips. Later he taught also some few sons of 
friends. But in spite of Dr. Johnson's vigorous 
assertion, we must conclude that he was never really 
a schoolmaster. 

From his notebooks kept at this time we learn 
that he was busily engaged on his projected great 
poem. He made a Ust of a hundred subjects, and 
selected from among them finally the Fall of Satan. 
There is, in fact, evidence that as early as 1642 he 
began a poem on this subject. But for about twenty 
years he was to write scarcely any poetry. A peti- 
tion against Episcopacy was presented to Parliament 
by the Puritans. A perfect storm of pamphlets fol- 
lowed it. Milton wrote five pamphlets against 
Episcopacy, the last published, we believe, in March, 
1642. 

In 1643 he left London without telling his friends 
anything about his plans. ''About Whitsuntide 
it was, or a little after," writes PhiUips, ''that he 
took a journey into the country, nobody about him 
certainly knowing the reason, or that it was any more 



xlii INTRODUCTION 

than a journey of recreation ; but home he returns a 
married man that went out a bachelor, his wife being 
Mary, the eldest daughter of Mr. Richard Powell, 
then a Justice of the Peace, of Forest-hill, near 
Shotover, in Oxfordshire." Of Milton's courtship 
nothing is known. In 1627 Richard Powell ac- 
knowledged a debt to John Milton senior of £500. 
The poet may first have visited the Powell home on 
business connected with the debt ; and this may have 
led to his meeting his bride-to-be. It was a most 
unfortunate match. Milton was in the middle of 
his thirty-fifth year; his wife of her eighteenth. 
He was a Puritan; she a Royalist. They had no 
interests in common. Their honeymoon must have 
been extremely unhappy. At the end of a month 
Mrs. Milton returned to her family, leaving with 
her husband the impression that she would come 
back to him at Michaelmas, that is, in about two 
months. When the time came, she refused to re- 
turn. The result was the pubhcation by Milton of 
his famous Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce in 
which he maintained that incompatibility of tem- 
perament is the strongest reason for divorce. Just 
when this pamphlet was written and published we 



INTRODUCTION' xliii 

do not know. Professor Masson found evidence 
to prove that the date of its pubhcation is August 
first, which is about the time Mary Milton left for 
Oxfordshire. If it was published then, Milton must 
have written it during the first month of his married 
hfe. But if he wrote it then and published it, he 
acted very inconsistently in asking her to return at 
the time she had promised. In spite of documentary 
evidence to the contrary, it seems most likely that 
Mary Milton's refusal to return was the occasion 
for the writing and publication of the pamphlet. 
Three more pamphlets on the same subject fol- 
lowed it. 

Two years later, when the Parliamentary army 
had overrun Oxfordshire, and the Royalist cause 
seemed hopeless, the wife returned to her husband 
and was forgiven. 

Liberty is the watchword of all Milton's pamphlets. 
While advocating hberty of divorce, he wrote on 
two other subjects connected with liberty. He ad- 
dressed to his friend, Samuel Hartlib, a German 
busy with many kinds of projects, a Tract on Edu- 
cation, in which he set forth his views of an improved 
system of education for gentlemen's sons. Following 



xliv INTRODUCTION 

this tract came Areopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty 
of Unlicensed Printing. It urged the ParHament to 
repeal an order regulating the press by official cen- 
sors. This is Milton's best piece of prose Avriting. 
His other prose works are read now, if they are read 
at all, because they were written by Milton. The 
Areopagitica is still read because of its intrinsic 
merit. The argument is convincing, and the style 
unsurpassed for vigor, richness, and eloquence. 

Between 1649 and 1660 Milton wrote many pam- 
phlets, justifying the trial and execution of Charles I., 
defending the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 
and trying to prevent the return of the Stuarts. 
In 1649, in the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, he 
defended the thesis that the people have the right 
to depose a tyrannous king or other magistrate. 
In Eikonoklastes he ridiculed the Eikon Basilike, 
a book supposed at the time to contain the prayers 
and meditations of Charles written by him during 
the latter part of his captivity. It is now thought 
to be the work of Dr. John Gauden. The most 
important of the other pamphlets are the Defensio 
pro Populo Anglicano {Defence of the Eriglish People) 
and Defensio Secunda {Second Defence). The first, 



INTRODUCTION xlv 

which was a reply to a vindication of Charles by a 
famous Leyden professor, Claude de Saumaise — 
Salmasius — gained Milton a reputation throughout 
educated Europe. It was while he was working on 
this pamphlet that his blindness became complete. 

Soon after the death of Charles, Milton was 
appointed Latin Secretary to the Commonwealth, 
the name by which England was known during the 
three years that it was in form a republic. His duty 
was to conduct in Latin the correspondence of his 
government with foreign nations and to be its lit- 
erary defender. This office he held under the Pro- 
tectorate, when Cromwell became practically a 
monarch, and during the few months that Richard 
Cromwell nominally succeeded his father. At the 
Restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 Milton had to 
hide himself in London. Probably because of a com- 
bination in his favor in Parliament he escaped with 
nothing more serious than being arrested and having 
to pay fees of about £500 to the officers concerned 
in the arrest. 

His wife died in 1652, leaving three small daugh- 
ters. A son had died some time before. Milton's 
relations with his daughters were never pleasant; 



xlvi INTRODUCTION 

and for the unpleasant relations most of his biog- 
raphers have blamed him — altogether too much. 
There was fault on both sides. His daughters were 
like their mother; and she had not either the dis- 
position or the training that would fit her for a happy 
life with Milton. An attempt to fix the blame for 
the unhappiness caused by the marriage of Mary 
Powell and John Milton is futile. 

In 1656 Milton took as his second wife Katherine 
Woodcock, who died about fifteen months after 
the marriage, followed to the grave in a month by 
their infant daughter. The sonnet On his De- 
ceased Wife indicates that this marriage proved most 
happy. 

(c) 1660-1674. — Immediately after the Restora- 
tion we must think of Milton as old, blind, reduced 
in fortune, and disgraced. But his courage never 
failed him. Before that time there is reason to 
believe that he had written two books of Para- 
dise Lost. By 1665 he had completed it. It 
might have been published the next year, had not 
the great fire in London crippled the publishers. 
In 1667 the first edition was offered for sale. In 
less than two years thirteen hundred copies were 



INTRODUCTION xlvii 

sold. For the seventeenth century this was a 
large sale. The reception which the poem received 
warranted Edward Phillips, Milton's nephew, in 
writing that many not unqualified to judge pro- 
nounced it the perfection of its kind of poetry. 
About the same time Dryden is reported to 
have said of Milton: ''This man cuts us all out 
and the ancients too.'' Paradise Lost, its author had 
the pleasure of knowing before his death, was raising 
him to ''the highest heaven of fame." 

In 1671 he had completed Paradise Regained and 
Samson Agonistes. In the next three years he pre- 
pared for the press a number of prose works, among 
them a miniature Latin grammar, a digest of the 
logic of Ramus, and a History of Britain — a ro- 
mantic narrative of transactions down to the Nor- 
man Conquest. 

He married in 1663 Elizabeth Minshull, who long 
survived him. This marriage, though it was in a 
high degree unromantic, — the third Mrs. Milton 
came on the recommendation of her cousin, Milton's 
physician, — seems to have been happy. We have 
plenty of evidence of the blind poet's appreciation 
of his wife's efforts to make him comfortable. 



xlviii INTRODUCTION 

Milton died on the eighth of November, 1674. 
''All his learned and great friends in London, not 
without a concourse of the vulgar," writes Toland, 
''accompanied his body to the church of St. Giles, 
near Cripplegate, where he was buried in the chan- 
cel." 

IV. L'Allegro and II Penseroso 

U Allegro and II Penseroso, published in 1645, 
and probably written at Horton in 1632, were the 
first poems. Professor Masson thinks, to be com- 
posed by Milton after he left the university. They 
are companion studies, "dedicated to two condi- 
tions of mind" — mirthfulness, or joyousness, and 
pensiveness. Or if the reader prefers he may call 
them dedicated to the joyous man and the pensive 
man respectively; or, again, a contrast between 
the pleasures of a worldly life and those of a studious. 
In the very plan Milton shows his genius. Before 
him poets had contrasted the two moods ; he saw 
the possibilities of a contrast in companion poems. 
The balanced structure is apparent throughout. 
They are in a sense an elaborate antithesis. The 
first line of each is a command to depart ; then in 



INTRODUCTION xlix 

each comes a genealogy invented by the poet, which 
is followed by an invocation of the Goddess whose 
presence is desired. Then throughout with U Alle- 
gro's pleasures those of II Penseroso stand in sharp 
contrast. And always the surroundings and habits 
harmonize with the mood. The sweetness and 
quietness of the description is delightful. One may 
ignore those of Milton's critics who are troubled by 
inaccuracy in this description. He may not have 
his facts so nearly right as Wordsworth has his, but 
he is always true to the spirit of the scene. Most 
readers will agree with Macaulay that L' Allegro 
and II Penseroso are not so much poems as collec- 
tions of hints, from each one of which a person is to 
make a poem for himself. It need not be supposed 
that in either poem all the pleasures are crowded 
into one day. 

Milton may have taken from various sources 
ideas used in these poems. In this connection critics 
always mention The Author's Abstract of Melancholy 
from the preface of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. 
It can have furnished no more than a hint; though 
the line, 

** Nought so sweet as melancholy," 



1 INTRODUCTION 

reminds one of II Penseroso^s 

" Hail, divinest Melancholy." 
In .a song in Beaumont and Fletcher's Nice Valour 
occurs the line, 

" Hence, all you vain delights," 
which again makes the reader think of a line in II 
Penseroso : 

" Hence, vain, deluding Joys." 
Professor Neilson has called attention to another 
possible source in John Marston's Scourge of Villainy, 
Satire XI, a part of which he finds similar both in 
thought and phrasing to the first lines in L' Allegro. 
In metre Milton's two poems are similar. The 
body of each is composed of lines of eight syllables, 
riming in pairs, and with the accent on the even- 
numbered syllables. But frequently the initial 
unaccented syllable is missing. The introductory 
ten lines of each are of six and ten syllables alter- 
nately. The rime scheme of these lines is 
abbacddeec. 

V. Arcades 

Arcades was "part of an entertainment presented 
to the Countess Dowager of Derby by some noble 



INTRODUCTION' \l 

persons of her family." She is the lady to whom, 
as Lady Strange, Spenser dedicated his Teares of 
the Muses. Her maiden name was Alice Spenser, 
and Edmund Spenser was her relative. Her hus- 
band, Ferdinando, Lord Strange, became Earl of 
Derby. She is thought to be the Amaryllis of 
Spenser's pastoral poem, Colin Clouts Come Home 
Again, and her husband the Amyntas whose death 
is mourned : — 

*' Amyntas quite is gone and lies full low, 
Having his Amaryllis left to mone. 
Helpe, O ye shepheards, helpe ye all in this, 
Helpe Amaryllis this her losse to mourne : 
Her losse is yours, your losse Amyntas is, 
Amyntas, floure of shepheards pride forlorne 
He whilest he lived was the noblest swaine, 
That ever piped in an oaten quill." 

In 1600 the widow became the wife of the Lord 
Keeper Egerton, but she continued throughout her 
life to be known as the Countess of Derby. Her 
second husband in 1616, shortly before his death, 
was created Viscount Brackley. His son by a 
former marriage, John Egerton, became Earl of 
Bridgewater, an honor intended fo5f the father and 
given to the son immediately as an indication of 
great respect for his father's memory. To the 



ill INTRODUCTION 

Countess of Derby the Earl of Bridgewater was 
doubly related in that he had married about 1600 
her daughter by her first marriage. The children 
of the Earl were thus the grandchildren and the step- 
grandchildren of the Countess of Derby. Professor 
Masson suggests that they and others of her de- 
scendants decided to '^ present the aged countess 
with a Masque." 

Viscount Brackley and his brother, Mr. Thomas 
Egerton, sons of the Earl of Bridgewater, had acted 
in Carew's Coelum Brittanicum, presented at court 
a short time before. The music of that masque was 
by Henry Lawes, who was the instructor in music 
of the Bridgewater children. It was probably 
through Lawes that Milton was engaged to write 
the poetry. Milton may have studied music under 
Lawes, or the latter may have been associated ^vith 
Milton's father, who was a musician of reputation. 

VI. COMUS 

Comus was prepared for the same family as 
Arcades. In 1631 Charles I. appointed the Earl of 
Bridgewater Lord President of Wales. This presi- 



INTRODUCTION liii 

dency included besides Wales the four western coun- 
ties of England; and the official seat of the Lord 
President was Ludlow in Shropshire. The Earl 
did not begin his duties immediately, but by the 
fall of 1634 he and his family had arrived in Ludlow. 
The celebration of his inauguration extended over 
the greater part of that year. Probably the younger 
members of the family urged the presentation of 
a masque. Lawes was appointed general manager 
and musician. Milton was engaged to furnish the 
literary part. And Comus was acted on the twenty- 
ninth of September in 1634. The Earl's daughter, 
the Lady Alice, then in her fifteenth year, took the 
part of the Lady. Lord Brackley and Mr. Thomas 
Egerton, her younger brothers, took the parts of the 
two brothers. Lawes acted the part of the attendant 
spirit and of Thyrsis. 

The dialogue of Comus is written in blank verse 
lines of ten syllables, with the accent on the 
even-numbered syllables. An occasional line with 
an extra syllable furnishes variety. Eighteen 
lines (495-512) are in rimed couplets. Lines 93 
to 144 and 902 to 1023 are in the same metre 
as the main portions of U Allegro and II Penseroso. 



liv INTRODUCTION 

The lines of the songs are of various lengths and 
rimes. 

'' Critics have pointed out that in writing Comus 
Milton must have had analogous pieces by some 
previous wi'iters before him. They specify more 
particularly The Old Wive's Tale of the dramatist 
Peele (1595), Fletcher's pastoral of the Faithful 
Shepherdess, which had been revived in 1633-1634, 
Ben Jonson's masque of Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue 
(1619), in which Comus or the God of Good Cheer 
is one of the characters, and a Latin extravaganza 
in prose and verse, entitled Comus, by the Dutch- 
man Erycius Puteanus alias Hendrik van der Putten, 
originally published at Louvain in 1608, and re- 
pubhshed at Oxford in 1634." ^ The character Circe 
appears in the Inner Temple Masque by William 
Browne (1614), in the company of njonphs and 
sirens ; and in the antimasque the dancers are men 
who have assumed the shape of beasts. This 
masque probabl}^ influenced Milton. ''Coincidences 
are undoubtedly discernible between Cornus and 
these compositions, especially the Latin extrava- 
ganza of the Dutch author. Infinitely too much has 

1 Masson, Life of Milton, Vol. I, p. 622. 



INTRODUCTION Iv 

been made, however, of such coincidences. After 
any or all of the pieces named, or any others that can 
be named, the feeling in reading Milton's Masque 
is that it is all his own, and his own only, a thing 
absolutely and essentially Miltonic, without prece- 
dent or approach to precedent in English or in 
any other language. The peculiarity consists no 
less in the power and purity of the doctrine than in 
the exquisite mythological invention and the per- 
fection of the literary finish." ^ 

VII. The Masque 

Arcades and Comus are masques, a kind of en- 
tertainment which attained its final form in the 
seventeenth century in the hands of musicians like 
Lawes, architects like Inigo Jones, and dramatists 
like Ben Jonson. But entertainments similar to 
the masque had been known in England from very 
early times. They were called mummings, dis- 
guisings, and masques. Their nature is illustrated 
by a description of a celebration called a mumming, 
held in honor of Richard II. at his accession to the 

1 Idem. 



Ivi INTRODUCTION 

throne in 1377. The name mumming carries the 
idea that the masked performers said nothing to 
indicate who they were. The entertainment would 
now be called a masquerade. When, however, the 
emphasis was on the costume rather than on silence, 
the same disguising prevailed. By the seventeenth 
century masque had supplanted the other names for 
the form, and masques had become exceedingly 
popular. The mumming in 1377 ended with a 
dance, the mummers on one side and the King and 
Lords on the other. And here we have the impor- 
tant feature of every masque, — a group of masked 
dancers. The stage machinery, which under Inigo 
Jones became most ingenious and elaborate, the 
songs, the dialogue, are all the setting for a ball. 
It is plain that Comus is not a tjq^ical masque. The 
dancing in Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens must 
have continued, to judge from Ben's own account 
of it, fully two hours. 

A study of the Masque of Queens will reveal 
the main characteristics of the type. This masque 
was prepared by Jonson at the request of Queen 
Anne, and presented at Whitehall in February, 1609. 
Jonson himself has left a complete description 



INTRODUCTION Ivii 

of it. It begins with an antimasque, ''twelve 
women, in the habit of hags, . . . not as a 
masque, but a spectacle of strangeness." . . . 
While the hags were dancing, ''on the sudden was 
heard a sound of loud music, as if many instruments 
had made one blast ; with which not only the hags 
themselves, but the hell into which they ran, quite 
vanished, and ... in the place of it appeared 
a glorious and magnificent building ... in the 
top of which were cUscovered the twelve Masquers, 
sitting upon a throne triumphal . . . circled 
with all store of light. From whom a person 
by this time descended, in the furniture of Per- 
seus, and expressing heroic and masculine Virtue 
began to speak." He explained the situation and 
introduced the masquers, who were disguised as 
"Penthesiha, the brave Amazon," "Swift-foot Ca- 
milla," and other queens of the ancient world. The 
twelfth and last was Bel-anna in obvious compli- 
ment to Queen Anne, who acted the part. 

Perseus concluded with a compliment to King 
James. 

" Lo you, that cherish every great example 
Contracted in yourself ; and being so ample 



Iviii INTRODUCTION 

A field of honor, cannot but embrace 

A spectacle, so full of love, and grace 

Unto your court : where every princely dame 

Contends to be as bounteous of her fame 

To others, as her life was good to her. 

For by their lives they only did confer 

Good to themselves ; but, by their fame, to yours, 

And every age, the benefit endures." 

At the end of this speech ''the throne wherein they 
sat . . . suddenly changed; and in place of it 
appeared Fama bona . . . attired in white, with 
white wings, having a collar of gold about her 
neck. . . ." After a short speech by Fame, the 
dancing began. 

We can gather from these incomplete quotations 
from Ben Jonson some idea of the principal char- 
acteristics of the masque. Like the Masque of 
Queens all masques were written by request for par- 
ticular occasions such as weddings, inaugurations, 
or coronations. Naturally they contain many com- 
pliments. Again masques are of the nature of pri- 
vate theatricals, being unadapted to the theatre and 
never presented there. The actors were always 
nobles, or at least of high rank. But professional 
actors often performed in the antimasque, where 
greater skill was required than in the masque proper. 



INTRODUCTION lix 

The antimasque as adapted by Ben Jonson supplied 
contrast and thus tended to make the entertainment 
dramatic. The characters might be allegorical, 
mythological, or historical. For a wedding masque 
they would be Juno, Venus, Hj^men, and other 
powers that might be expected to favor the married ; 
or instead they might be Laughter, Love, Harmony, 
and Delight. Writers of masques ransacked all 
ancient history and mythology for subjects. They 
delighted especially in classical characters and in 
personified abstractions such as Fame, Beauty, and 
Reason. 

Two elements of the masque have not yet been 
mentioned. The characters are often disguised as 
shepherds and shepherdesses, but the masque is not 
a division of pastoral poetry as some writers suppose, 
The popularity of the pastoral idea caused it to 
appear in many literary forms besides the masque, 
for example, in the dramas of Shakespeare. Sec- 
ondly, didacticism in the masque had, before Milton 
wrote Comus, received the approval of Ben Jonson's 
example, but the Puritanism of Milton manifests 
itself in his making the didactic purpose of the 
masque its central idea. 



Ix INTRODUCTION 

VIII. Lycidas 

Lycidas was written in the fall of 1637, probably 
in November, in memory of Edward King, a mem- 
ber of Christ's College, Cambridge. He had en- 
tered that college in 1626 and had received a fel- 
lowship in 1630. Milton had entered in 1625. It 
has been believed that had the fellowship been 
awarded strictly for merit Milton would have re- 
ceived it. We do not know much about the rela- 
tions which existed in college between the two men. 
Some critics have assumed that they were bosom 
friends, but all we really know is that they were in 
college together, that without any question they 
were acquainted, and that probably Milton, like all 
the other members of Christ's, respected King. We 
have no reason to think that Milton regarded King 
with any such warm feehngs of friendship as he did 
Charles Diodati. King, who was intending to be- 
come a clergyman of the Church of England, held 
various offices in the University. In August of his 
eleventh year in Cambridge he took ship at Chester 
to cross to Dubhn, to visit his relatives. His father, 
Sir John King, held high office in Ireland. Not far 



INTRODUCTION Ixi 

from the English coast the vessel sank, and most of 
the passengers, including King, were drowned. 

On the opening of the University in October King's 
friends planned to publish a volume of verses in his 
memory. The volume appeared in January, 1638. 
It consisted of two parts ; the first contained three 
Greek poems and twenty Latin ; the second thirteen 
English poems. Lycidas, which was the last poem 
in the book, and by far the most noteworthy, was 
signed by the poet's initials only, J. M. 

Lycidas is a pastoral elegy. An elegy is a song 
or lyric poem expressing grief. Similar elegies are 
Shelley's Adonais and Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis. 
To understand pastoral poetry such as Lycidas one 
must turn back to the writings of Theocritus, born 
about 300 B.C., in Syracuse, a Greek colony in 
Sicily. He was a realist in the sense that he watched 
the shepherds at their work and at their games, 
listened to their songs, and then depicted them in 
his poetry, idealized, we believe, but still true to 
life. 

Mr. Andrew Lang thus summarizes Idyl I. of 
Theocritus: ''The shepherd Thyrsis meets a goat- 
herd, in a shady place beside a spring, and at his 



Ixii INTRODUCTION 

invitation sings the Song of Daphnis. This ideal 
hero of Greek pastoral song had won for his bride 
the fairest of the Nymphs. Confident in the strength 
of his passion, he boasted that Love could never 
subdue him to a new affection. Love avenged him- 
self by making Daphnis desire a strange maiden, but 
to this temptation he never yielded, and so died a 
constant lover. The song tells how the cattle and 
the wild things of the wood bewailed him, how 
Hermes and Priapus gave him counsel in vain, and 
how with his last breath he retorted the taunts of 
the implacable Aphrodite." 

The song of Daphnis furnished a model a few 
years later for Moschus in his Lament for Bion. 
Moschus and Bion lived and wrote in Sicily a little 
later than Theocritus. In his lament Moschus 
chose to use the machinery of the Song of Daphnis. 
That is, he represented himself as a shepherd mourn- 
ing the death of another shepherd, his friend. Thus 
pastoral poetry moved one step away from the real. 
In the Eclogues Virgil imitated Theocritus ; he made 
no effort to depict the shepherd life of his own time 
and country. His Eclogues are invariable" allegories. 
In fact, allegory finally was believed to be essential 



INTRODUCTION Ixiii 

to pastoral poetry, and the departure from realism 
was complete. 

With the Renaissance came throughout Europe 
a quickened interest in the classics. Italian poets 
such as Sannazaro and Guarini imitated Virgil and 
helped to give vogue to the artificial pastoral. . These 
influenced English writers before Milton. The 
pastoral idea was not confined to the elegy, but was 
used in prose romances and in the drama. Spenser 
used it in the Shepheard^s Calendar, twelve eclogues, 
one for each month in the year ; Sir Philip Sidney 
in the Arcadia, and John Fletcher in The Faith- 
ful Shepherdess. Long before he wrote Lycidas, 
Milton used the form in Arcades and partly in 
Comus. 

Lycidas is written in lines of ten syllables with 
the accent on the even numbered syllables. Four- 
teen lines have but six syllables and three accents 
each. They are 4, 19, 21, 33, 41, 43, 48, 56, 79, 88, 
90, 95, 108, and 145. The rime is irregular, some- 
times it affects two lines ; sometimes three or more ; 
once six. Occasional blank verse lines produce 
further variety. Examples of them are 1, 22, 39. 
^'The poem is an exquisite example of a kind of 



Ixiv INTRODUCTION 

verse which theorists might pronounce the most 
perfect and natural of any — that in which the 
mechanism is elastic, or determined from moment to 
moment by the swell or shrinking of the meaning 
or feeling." 



Matthew Arnold's Address on Milton ^ 

The most eloquent voice of our century uttered 
shortly before leaving the world a warning cry 
''against the Anglo-Saxon contagion." The tenden- 
cies and aims, the view of life and the social economy 
of the ever-multiplying and spreading Anglo-Saxon 
race, would be found congenial, this prophet feared, 
by all the prose, all the vulgarity amongst mankind, 
and would invade and overpower all nations. The 
true ideal would be lost, a general sterility of mind 
and heart would set in. 

The prophet had in view, no doubt, in the warn- 
ing thus given, us and our colonies, but the United 
States still more. There the Anglo-Saxon race is 
already most numerous, there it increases fastest; 
there material interests are most absorbing and 
pursued with most energy ; there the ideal, the sav- 

1 An address delivered by Matthew Arnold in St. Margaret's 
Church, Westminster, on the 13th of February, 1888, at the un- 
veiling of a memorial window presented by Mr. George W. 
Childs of Philadelphia. 

Ixv 



Ixvi ADDRESS ON MILTON 

ing ideal, of a high and rare excellence, seems per- 
haps to suffer most danger of being obscured and 
lost. Whatever one may think of the general danger 
to the world from the Anglo-Saxon contagion, it 
appears to me difficult to deny that the growing 
greatness and influence of the United States does 
bring with it some danger to the ideal of a high and 
rare excellence. The average man is too much a 
religion there ; his performance is unduly magnified, 
his shortcomings are not duly seen and admitted. 
A lady in the State of Ohio sent to me only the other 
day a volume on American authors ; the praise 
given throughout was of such high pitch that in 
thanking her I could not forbear saying that for 
only one or two of the authors named was such a 
strain of praise admissible, and that we lost all real 
standard of excellence by praising so uniformly and 
immoderately. She answered me with charming 
good temper, that very likely I was quite right, but 
it was pleasant to her to think that excellence was 
common and abundant. But excellence is not com- 
mon and abundant ; on the contrary, as the Greek 
poet long ago said, excellence dwells among rocks 
hardly accessible, and a man must almost wear his 



ADDRESS ON MILTON Ixvii 

heart out before he can reach her. Whoever talks 
of excellence as common and abundant is on the 
way to lose all right standard of excellence. And 
v/hen the right standard of excellence is lost, it is 
not likely that much which is excellent will be pro- 
duced. 

To habituate ourselves, therefore, to approve, as 
the Bible says, things that are really excellent, is of 
the highest importance. And some apprehension 
may justly be caused by a tendency in Americans to 
take, or at any rate, attempt to take, profess to take, 
the average man and his performances too seriously, 
to overrate and overpraise what is not really superior. , 

But we have met here to-day to witness the un- 
veihng of a gift in Milton's honor, and a gift be- 
stowed by an American, Mr. Childs of Philadelphia ; 
whose cordial hospitality so many Englishmen, I 
myself among the number, have experienced in 
America. It was only last autumn that Stratford- 
upon-Avon celebrated the reception of a gift from 
the same generous donor in honor of Shakespeare. 
Shakespeare and Milton — he who wishes to keep 
his standard of excellence high, cannot choose two 
better objects of regard and honor. And it is an 



Ixviii ADDRESS ON MILTON 

American who has chosen them, and whose beautiful 
gift in honor of one of them, Milton, with Mr. 
Whittier's simple and true lines inscribed upon it, 
is unveiled to-day. Perhaps this gift in honor of 
Milton, of which I am asked to speak, is, even more 
than the gift in honor of Shakespeare, one to sug- 
gest edifying reflections to us. 

Like Mr. Whittier, I treat the gift of Mr. Childs 
as a gift in honor of Milton, although the window 
given is in memory of his second wife, Catherine 
Woodcock, the ''late espoused saint" of the famous 
sonnet, who died in childbed at the end of the first 
year of her marriage with Milton, and who lies buried 
here with her infant. Milton is buried in Cripple- 
gate, but he lived for a good while in this parish of 
St. Margaret's, Westminster, and here he composed 
part of Paradise Lost, and the whole of Paradise 
Regained and Samson Agonistes. When death de- 
prived him of the Catherine whom the new window 
commemorates, Milton had still some eighteen years 
to live, and Cromwell, his ''chief of men," was yet 
ruling England. But the Restoration, with its 
"Sons of Belial," was not far off ; and in the mean- 
time Milton's heavy affliction had laid fast hold upon 



ADDRESS ON MILTON Ixix 

him ; his eyesight had failed totally, he was blind. 
In what remained to him of life he had the consola- 
tion of producing the Paradise Lost and the Samson 
Agonistes, and such a consolation we may indeed 
count as no slight one. But the daily life of happi- 
ness in common things and in domestic affections — 
a life of which, to Milton, as to Dante, too small a 
share was given — he seemed to have known most, 
if not only, in his one married year with the wife 
who is here buried. Her form "vested all in white," 
as in his sonnet he relates that after her death she 
appeared to him, her face veiled, but with "love, 
sweetness, and goodness" shining in her person, — 
this fair and gentle daughter of the rigid sectarist 
of Hackney, this lovable companion with whom 
Milton had rest and happiness one year, is a part of 
Milton indeed, and in calling up her memory, we 
call up his. 

And in calling up Milton's memory we call up, let 
me say, a memory upon which, in prospect of the 
Anglo-Saxon contagion and of its dangers, supposed 
and real, it may be well to lay stress even more than 
upon Shakespeare's. If to our English race an in- 
adequate sense of perfection of work is a real dan- 



Ixx ADDRESS ON MILTON 

ger, if the discipline of respect for a high and flaw- 
less excellence is peculiarly needed by us, Milton 
is of all our gifted men the best lesson, the most salu- 
tary influence. In the sure and flawless perfection 
of his rhythm and diction he is as admirable as Virgil 
or Dante, and in this respect he is unique among us. 
No one else in English literature and art possesses 
the like distinction. 

Thomson, Cowper, Wordsworth, — all of them good 
poets who have studied Milton, followed Milton, 
adopted his form, — fail in their diction and rhythm 
if we try them by that high standard of excellence 
maintained by Milton constantly. From style really 
high and pure Milton never departs : their departures 
from it are frequent. 

Shakespeare is divinely strong, rich, and attractive. 
But sureness of perfect style Shakespeare himself 
does not possess. I have heard a politician express 
wonder at the treasures of political wisdom in a cer- 
tain celebrated scene of Troilus and Cressida; for my 
part I am at least equally moved to wonder at the 
fantastic and false diction in which Shakespeare has 
in that scene clothed them. Milton, from one end of 
Paradise Lost to the other, is in his diction and 



ADDRESS ON MILTON Ixxi 

rhythm constantly a great artist in the great style. 
Whatever may be said as to the subject of his poem, 
as to the conditions under which he received his 
subject and treated it, that praise, at any rate, is 
assured him. 

For the rest, justice is not at present done, in my 
opinion, to Milton's management of the inevitable 
matter of a Puritan epic, a matter full of difficulties 
for a poet. Justice is not done to the architectonics, 
as Goethe would have called them, of Paradise Lost; 
in these, too, the power of Milton's art is remark- 
able. But this may be a proposition which requires 
discussion and development for establishing it, and 
they are impossible on an occasion like the present. 

That Milton, of all our English race, is by his 
diction and rhythm the one artist of the highest 
rank in the great style whom we have ; this I take 
as requiring no discussion, this I take as certain. 

The mighty power of poetry and art is generally 
admitted. But where the soul of this power, of this 
power at its best, chiefly resides, very many of us 
fail to see. It resides chiefly in the refining and ele- 
vation wrought in us by the high and rare excellence 
of the great style. We may feel the effect without 



Ixxii ADDRESS ON MILTON 

being able to give ourselves clear account of its cause, 
but the thing is so. Now, no race needs the influ- 
ences mentioned, the influences of refining and ele- 
vation, more than ours ; and in poetry and art our 
grand source for them is Milton. 

To what does he owe this supreme distinction? 
To nature first and foremost, to that bent of nature 
for inequality which to the worshippers of the aver- 
age man is so unacceptable ; to a gift, a divine favor. 
''The older one grows, " says Goethe, '' the more one 
prizes natural gifts, because by no possibihty can 
they be procured and stuck on." Nature formed 
Milton to be a great poet. But what other poet has 
shown so sincere a sense of the grandeur of his vo- 
cation, and a moral effort so constant and sublime to 
make and keep himself worthy of it? The Milton 
of religious and political controversy, and perhaps 
of domestic life also, is not seldom disfigured by want 
of amenity, by acerbity. The Milton of poetry, on 
the other hand, is one of those great men ''who are 
modest" — to quote a fine remark of Leopardi, — 
that gifted and stricken young Italian, who in his 
sense for poetic style is worthy to he named with 
Dante and Milton — "who are modest because they 



ADDRESS ON MILTON Ixxiii 

continually compare themselves, not with other 
men, but with that idea of the perfect which they 
have before their mind." The Milton of poetry is 
the man, in his own magnificent phrase, of "devout 
prayer to that Eternal Spirit that can enrich with 
all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Sera- 
phim with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and 
purify the lips of whom he pleases. " And finally, 
the Milton of poetry is, in his own words again, the 
man " of industrious and select reading." Continually 
he lived in companionship with high and rare ex- 
cellence, with the great Hebrew poets and prophets, 
with the great poets of Greece and Rome. The He- 
brew compositions were not in verse, and can be not 
inadequately represented by the grand measured 
prose of our English Bible. The verse of the poets 
of Greece and Rome no translation can adequately 
reproduce. Prose cannot have the power of Verse ; 
verse-translation may give whatever of charm is in 
the soul and talent of the translator himself, but 
never the specific charm of the verse and poet trans- 
lated. In our race there are thousands of readers, 
presently there will be millions, who know not a 
work of Greek and Latin, and will never learn those 



Ixxiv ADDRESS ON MILTON 

languages. If this host of readers are ever to gain 
any sense of the power and charm of the great poets 
of antiquity, their way to gain it is not through trans- 
lations of the ancients, but through the original 
poetry of Milton, who has the like power and charm, 
because he has the like great style. 

Through Milton they may gain it, for, in conclu- 
sion, Milton is EngUsh ; this master in the great 
style of the ancients is English. Virgil, whom Mil- 
ton loved and honored, has at the end of the Mneid 
a noble passage, where Juno, seeing the defeat of 
Turnus and the Itahans imminent, the victory of 
the Trojan invaders assured, entreats Jupiter that 
Italy may nevertheless survive and be herself still, 
may retain her own mind, manners, and language, 
and not adopt those of the conqueror. 

" Sit Latium, sint Albani per secula reges ! '' 
Jupiter grants the prayer; he promises perpetuity 
and the future to Italy — Italy reenforced by what- 
ever virtue the Trojan race has, but Italy, not Troy. 
This we may take as a sort of parable suiting our- 
selves. All the Anglo-Saxon contagion, all the flood 
of Anglo-Saxon commonness, beats vainly against 
the great style but cannot shake it, and has to ac- 



ADDRESS ON MILTON Ixxv 

cept its triumph. But it triumphs in Milton, in 
one of our own race, tongue, faith, and morals. Mil- 
ton has made the great style no longer an exotic 
here ; he has made it an inmate amongst us, a leaven, 
and a power. Nevertheless he, and his hearers on 
both sides of the Atlantic, are English, and will re- 
main English — 

" Sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt." 

The English race overspreads the world, and at the 
same time the ideal of an excellence the most high 
and the most rare abides a possession with it forever. 



Humphrey Moseley's Preface to the First 
Edition of Milton's Poems, 1645. 

''THE STATIONER TO THE READER 

*'It is not any private respect of gain, Gentle 
Reader (for the slightest Pamphlet is nowadays more 
vendible than the works of learnedest men), but it is 
the love I have to our own Language, that hath made 
me delight to collect and set forth such Pieces, both 
in Prose and Verse, as may renew the wonted honor 
and esteem of our English tongue ; and it's the worth 
of these both English and Latin Poems, not the 
flourish of any prefixed encomions, that can invite 
thee to buy them — though these are not without 
the highest commendations and applause of the 
learnedest Academicks, both domestic and foreign, 
and, amongst those of our own country, the unpar- 
alleled attestation of that reno^vned Provost of Eton, 
SIR HENRY WOOTTON. I know not thy palate, 
how it reUshes such dainties, nor how harmonious 
thy soul is : perhaps more trivial Airs may please 
Ixxvi 



THE STATIONER TO THE READER Ixxvii 

thee better. But, howsoever thy opinion is spent 
upon these, that encouragement I have already re- 
ceived from the most ingenious men, in their clear 
and courteous entertainment of Mr. WALLER'S 
late choice Pieces, hath once more made me adven- 
ture into the world, presenting it with these ever- 
green and not to be blasted laurels. The Author's 
more peculiar excellency in these studies was too 
well known to conceal his Papers, or to keep me from 
attempting to solicit them from him. Let the event 
guide itself which way it will, I shall deserve of the 
age by bringing into the light as true a birth as the 
Muses have brought forth since our famous SPEN- 
SER wrote ; whose Poems in these English ones are 
as rarely imitated as sweetly excelled. Reader, if 
thou art eagle-eyed to censure their worth, I am not 
fearful to expose them to thy exactest perusal. 
''Thine to command, 

" HUMPH. MOSELEY." 



MILTON'S COMUS, LYCIDAS, AND 
OTHER POEMS 



AT A SOLEMN MUSIC° 

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven's joy, 

Sphere-born° harmonious sisters. Voice and Verse, 

Wed your divine sounds, and mixed power employ. 

Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce ; 

And to our high-raised phantasy present 5 

That undisturbed song of pure consent, ° 

Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne ° 

To Him that sits thereon. 

With saintly shout and solemn jubilee ; 

Where the bright Seraphim in burning row lo 

Their loud uplifted angel-trumpets blow, 

And the Cherubic host in thousand quires 

Touch their immortal harps of golden wires. 

With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, 

Hymns devout and holy psalms 15 

B 1 



2 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Singing everlastingly : 

That we on Earth, with undiscording voice, 

May rightly answer that melodious noise ;° 

As once we did, till disproportioned sin° 

Jarred against nature's chime, ° and with harsh din 20 

Broke the fair music that all creatures made 

To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed 

In perfect diapason, ° whilst they stood 

In first obedience, and their state of good. 

O, may we soon again renew that song, 25 

And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long 

To his celestial consort° us unite. 

To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light ! 



ON SHAKESPEARE 1630 



ON SHAKESPEARE^ 1630 

What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones 

The labour of an age in piled stones 

Or that his hallowed reliques should be hid 

Under a star-ypointing° pyramid ? 

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame, 5 

What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name ? 

Thou in our wonder and astonishment 

Hast built thyself a livelong" monument. 

For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art,° 

Thy easy numbers flow, and that each heart lo 

Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued" book 

Those Delphic" lines with deep impression took, 

Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving. 

Dost make us marble with too much conceiving," 

And so sepulchred in such pomp dost lie 15 

That kings for such a tomb would wish to die. 



MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



L'ALLEGRO° 

Hence, loathed Melancholy, ° 

Of Cerberus ° and blackest Midnight born 
In Stygian° cave forlorn 

'Mongst horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights un- 
holy ! 
Find out some uncouth° cell, 5 

Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous° 
wings. 
And the night-raven° sings ; 

There, under ebon shades and low-browed rocks. 
As ragged as thy locks, 

In dark Cimmerian° desert ever dwell. 10 

But come, thou Goddess fair and free. 
In heaven yclept ° Euphrosyne,° 
And by men heart-easing Mirth ; 
Whom lovely Venus, at a birth, 
With two sister Graces more, 16 

To ivy-crowned Bacchus bore : 
Or whether (as some sager° sing) 
The frolic wind that breathes the spring. 
Zephyr, with Aurora playing, 



Vallegro 5 

As he met her once a-Maying, 20 

There, on beds of violets blue, 

And fresh-blown roses washed in dew,° 

Filled her with thee, a daughter fair. 

So buxom, ° blithe, and debonair. ° 

Haste thee. Nymph, and bring with thee 25 

Jest, and youthful Jollity, 

Quips ° and Cranks ° and wanton ° Wiles, 

Nods and Becks and wreathed Smiles, 

Such as hang on Hebe's° cheek. 

And love to live in dimple sleek ; 30 

Sport that wrinkled Care derides, 

And Laughter holding both his sides. 

Come, and trip it,° as you go. 

On the light fantastic ° toe ; 

And in thy right hand lead with thee 35 

The mountain-nymph, sweet Liberty ; 

And, if I give thee honour due. 

Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 

To live with her,° and live with thee, 

In unreproved° pleasure free ; 40, 

To hear the lark begin his flight, 

And, singing, startle the dull night. 

From his watch-tower in the skies, 



6 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Till the dappled° dawn doth rise ; 

Then to come, in spite of sorrow, ° 45 

And at my window bid good-morrow, 

Through the sweet-briar or the vine, 

Or the twisted eglantine ;° 

While the cock, with lively din, 

Scatters the rear of darkness thin : 50 

And to the stack, or the barn-door, 

Stoutly struts his dames before: 

Oft listening how the hounds and horn 

Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn, 

From the side of some hoar hill, 55 

Through the high wood echoing shrill ; ^ 

Sometime walking, not unseen,° '-v/- ^- 

By hedgerow elms, on hillocks green, 

Right against the eastern gate j\,^/K 

Where the great Sun begins his state, ° /^"^ 60 

Robed in flames and amber light, - j 

The clouds in thousand liveries dight ;° ^^^^ 

While the ploughman, near at hand. 

Whistles o'er the furrowed land. 

And the milkmaid singeth blithe, 65 

And the mower whets his scythe, ^ , j^ 

And every shepherd tells his tale° '- ' '' 



V ALLEGRO 7 

Under the hawthorn in the dale. 
Ar^traight° mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
Whilst the landskip° round it measures: 70 

Russet lawns, ° and fallows grey. 
Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; 
Mountains on whose barren breast 
The labouring clouds do often rest ; ..JL^ 

Meadows trim, with daisies pied ;° '^y^^'^ 75 

Shallow brooks, and rivers wide ; 
Towers and battlements it sees 
Bosomed° high in tufted trees, 
Where perhaps some beauty lies. 
The cynosure ° of neighbouring eyes. 80 

Hard by a cottage chimney smokes / 

From betwixt two aged oaks, t v;/^- - 
Where Corydon° and Thyrsis° met 
Are at their savoury dinner set 

Of herbs and other country messes, 85 

Which the neat-handed Phillis° dresses ; 
And then in haste her bower she leaves, 
With Thestylis° to bind the sheaves ; 
Or, if the earlier season lead. 

To the tanned haycock in the mead. 90 

Sometimes, with secure ° delight, 



8 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

The uplancr hamlets will invite, 

When the merry bells ring round, 

And jocund rebecks° sound 

To many a youth and many a maid 95 

Dancing in the chequered shade, ° 

And young and old come forth to play 

On a sunshine holiday, 

Till the livelong daylight fail : 

Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,° lOO 

With stories told of many a feat. 

How Faery Mab° the iunkets° eat° 

She° was pinched and pulled, she said ; 

And he,° by Friar's lantern led. 

Tells ° how the drudging goblin sweat 105 

To earn his cream-bowl duly set. 

When in one night, ere glimpse of morn. 

His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn 

That ten day-labourers could not end ; 

Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, llO 

And, stretched out all the chimney's" length, 

Basks at the fire his hairy strength, 

And crop°-full out of doors he flings, 

Ere the first cock his matin rings. 

Thus done the tales, to bed they creep, 115 



VALLEGRO 9 

By whispering winds soon lulled asleep. 

Towered cities° please us then, 

And the busy hum of men, 

Where throngs of knights and barons bold. 

In weeds° of peace, high triumphs" hold, 120 

With store of° ladies, whose bright eyes ' 

Rain influence, ° and judge the prize ° 

Of wit or arms, while both contend 

To win her° grace whom all commend. 

There let Hymen ° oft appear 125 

In saffron ° robe, with taper clear. 

And pomp, and feast, and revelry. 

With mask and antique pageantry ; 

Such sights as youthful poets dream 

On summer eves by haunted stream. 130 

Then to the well-trod stage anon ^ >c*''CZ/ 

If Jonson's learned sock° be on, ^U\^Aa4fJ^^^ 

Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 

Warble his native wood-notes wild,° 

And ever, against eating cares, , 135 

Lap me in soft Lydian airs,° - x.-^^----^- 

Married to immortal verse, ^..^ — ^^^^^ ^4^ 



Such as the meeting soul° may pietce. 
In notes with many a winding bout^ 



10 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Of linked sweetness long drawn out/ 140 

With wanton heed and giddy cunning, 

The melting voice through mazes running, 

Untwisting all the chains that tie 

The hidden soul of harmony ; 

That Orpheus' ° self may heave his head 145 

From golden slumber on a bed 

Of heaped Elysian° flowers, and hear 

Such strains as would have won the ear 

Of Pluto to have quite set free 

His half-regained Eurydice.° 150 

These delights if thou canst give, 

Mirth, with thee I mean to live.° 



^^■■' 



IL PENSEROSO 11 

IL PENSEROSO° 

Hence, vain deluding Joys, 

The brood of Folly without father bred ! 
How little you bested, ° 

Or fill the fixed mind with all your toys !° 
Dwell in some idle brain, i 5 

And fancies fond° with gaudy shapes possess, ° 
As thick and numberless 

As the gay motes that people the sun-beams, 
Or likest° hovering dreams, 

The fickle pensioners" of Morpheus' train. lO 

But, hail ! thou Goddess sage and holy ! 
Hail, divinest Melancholy !° 
Whose saintly visage is too bright 
To hit° the sense of human sight, 
And therefore to our weaker view 15 

O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue ; 
Black, but such as in esteem 
Prince Memnon's° sister might beseem, 
Or that starred Ethiop queen° that strove 
To set her beauty's praise above 20 

The Sea-Nymphs, and their powers offended. 
Yet thou art higher far descended : 



12 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Thee bright-haired Vesta° long of yore 

To soUfary Saturn bore ; 

His daughter she ; in Saturn's reign 25 

Such mixture was not held a stain. 

Oft in glimmering bowers and glades 

He met her, and in secret shades 

Of woody Ida's° inmost grove, 

Whilst yet there was no fear of Jove. 30 

Come, pensive Nun, devout and pure, 

Sober, steadfast, and demure, 

All in a robe of darkest grain, ° C>Cs^^ 

Flowing with majestic train. 

And sable stole ° of cypress lawn° 35 

Over thy decent shoulders drawn. 'V^-jy 

Come ; but keep thy wonted state, ° (N'^V^ ft 

With even step, and musing gait, - > -^^.^ 

And looks commercing^ with the skies, ^ 

Thy rapt° soul sitting in thine eyes : 40 

There, held in holy passion still. 

Forget thyself to marble, ° till 

With a sad° leaden° downward cast° 

Thou fix them on the earth as fast. 

And join with thee calm Peace and Quiet, 45 

Spare Fast,° that oft with gods doth diet, 



IL PENSEROSO 13 

And hears the Muses in a ring- 
Aye round about Jove's altar sing ; 
And add to these retired Leisure, 
That in trim gardens takes his pleasure ; 50 

But, first and chiefest, with thee bring 
Him that yon° soars on golden wing. 
Guiding the fiery wheeled throne, 
The Cherub Contemplation ;° 

And the mute Silence hist° along, 55 

'Less Philomel ° will deign a song. 
In her sweetest saddest plight, ° 
Smoothing the rugged brow of Night, 
While Cynthia° checks° her dragon yoke° 
Gently o'er the accustomed oak. 60 

Sweet bird,° that shunn'st the noise of folly, 
Most musical, most melancholy ! 
Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among 
I woo, to hear thy even-song ; 

And, missing thee, I walk unseen° 65 

On the dry smooth-shaven green, 
To behold the wandering moon. 
Riding near her highest noon. 
Like one that had been led astray 
Through the heaven's wide pathless way, 70 



14 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And oft, as if her head she bowed, 

Stooping through a fleecy cloud. 

Oft, on a plat° of rising ground, 

I hear the far-off curfew ° sound, 

Over some° wide-watered shore, 75 

Swinging slow with sullen roar ; 

Or, if the air will not permit, 

Some still removed ° place will fit. 

Where glowing embers through the room 

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, 80 

Far from all resort of mirth. 

Save the cricket on the hearth, 

Or the bellman's° drowsy charm° 

To bless the doors from nightly harm. 

Or let my lamp, at midnight hour, 85 

Be seen in some high lonely tower. 

Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,° 

With thrice-great Hermes, ° or unsphere° 

The spirit of Plato, to unfold 

What worlds or what vast regions hold 90 

The immortal mind that hath forsook° 

Her mansion in this fleshly nook ; 

And° of those demons that are found 

In fire, air, flood, or underground, ° 



IL PENSEROSO 15 

Whose power hath a true consent 95 

With planet or with element. 

Sometime let gorgeous Tragedy 

In sceptred° pair come sweeping by, 

Presenting Thebes, ° or Pelops' line, 

Or the tale of Troy divine, 100 

Or what (though rare) of later age 

Ennobled hath the buskined° stage. 

But, O sad Virgin ! that thy power 

Might raise Mus2eus° from his bower ; 

Or bid the soul of Orpheus ° sing 105 

Such notes as, warbled to the string, 

Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 

And made Hell grant what love did seek ; 

Or call up him that left half-told ° 

The story of Cambuscan° bold, no 

Of Camball, and of Algarsife, 

And who had Canace to wife. 

That owned the virtuous° ring and glass, 

And of the wondrous horse of brass 

On which the Tartar king did ride ; 115 

And if aught else great bards beside 

In sage and solemn tunes have sung, 

Of turneys, and of trophies hung, 



16 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Of forests, and enchantments drear, 

Where more is meant than meets the ear.° 120 

Thus, Night, oft see me in thy pale career, 

Till civil-suited ° Morn appear. 

Not tricked and frounced, as she was wont 

With the Attic boy° to hunt. 

But kerchieft in a comely cloud, 125 

While rocking winds are piping loud, 

Or ushered with a shower still. 

When the gust hath blown his° fill, 

Ending on the rustling leaves, 

With minute-drops ° from off the eaves. 130 

And, when the sun begins to fling 

His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring 

To arched walks of twilight groves. 

And shadows brown, ° that Sylvan° loves, 

Of pine, or monumental ° oak, 135 

Where the rude axe with heaved stroke 

Was never heard the nymphs to daunt. 

Or fright them from their hallowed haunt. 

There, in close covert, by some brook, 

Where no profaner eye may look, 140 

Hide me from day's garish ° eye, 

While the bee with honeyed thigh, 



IL PENSEROSO 17 

That at her flowery work doth sing, 
And the waters murmuring, 

With such consort° as they keep, 145 

Entice the dewy-feathered Sleep. 
And let some strange mysterious dream 
Wave at his wings, in airy stream 
Of lively portraiture displayed. 
Softly on my eyeli^^s laid ;° 160 

And, as I wake,' sweet music breathe 
Above, about, or underneath. 
Sent by some Spirit to mortals good, 
Or the unseen Genius ° of the wood. 
But let my due° feet never fail 166 

To walk the studious cloister's pale,° 
And love the high embowed roof, 
With antique pillars massy-proof, ° 
And storied windows" richly dight,° 
Casting a dim religious hght. 160 

There let the pealing organ blow, 
To the full-voiced quire below. 
In service high and anthems clear, 
As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
Dissolve me into ecstasies, 166 

And bring all Heaven before mine eyes, 
c 



18 MILTON'S GOMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And may at last my weary age 

Find out the peaceful hermitage, 

The hairy gown and mossy cell, 

Where I may sit and rightly spell ° 170 

Of every star that heaven doth shew, 

And every herb that sips the dew, 

Till old experience do attain 

To something Hke prophetic strain. 

These pleasures, Melancholy, give f 175 

And I with thee will choose to live. 



ARCADES 19 

ARCADES 

Part of an Entertainment presented to the Countess 
Dowager of Derby at Harefield by some Noble Per- 
sons of her Family ; who appear on the Scene in 
pastoral habit, moving toward the seat of state, with 
this song: 

I. Song 

Look, Njmiphs and Shepherds, look ! 
What sudden blaze of majesty 
Is that which we from hence descry, 
Too divine to be mistook ?° 

This, this is she 5 

To whom our vows and wishes bend : 
Here our solemn search hath end. 
Fame,° that her high worth to raise 
Seemed erst so lavish and profuse, 
We may justly now accuse 10 

Of detraction from her praise : 

Less than half we find expressed ; 

Envy bid conceal the rest. 

Mark what radiant state° she spreads, 

In circle round her shining throne 15 



20 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Shooting her beams Uke silver threads : 
This, this is she alone, 

Sitting like a goddess bright 

In the centre of her light. 

Might she the wise Latona° be, 20 

Or the towered Cybele,° 

Mother of a hundred gods ? 

Juno dares not give her odds :° 

Who had thought this clime had held 

A deity so unparalleled ? 25 

As they come forward, the Genius of the Wood° 
appears, and, turning toward them, speaks. 

Gen. Stay, gentle° Swains, for, though in this dis- 
guise, 
I see bright honour sparkle through your eyes ; 
Of famous Arcady° ye are, and sprung 
Of that renowned flood, so often sung, 
Divine Alpheus, who, by secret sluice, 30 

Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse ;° 
And ye, the breathing roses of the wood. 
Fair silver-buskined Nymphs, ° as great and good. 



ARCADES 21 

I know this quest ° of yours and free° intent 

Was all in honour and devotion meant 35 

To the great mistress of yon princely shrine, 

Whom with low reverence I adore as mine, 

And with all helpful service will comply 

To further this night's glad solemnity, 

And lead ye where ye may more near behold 40 

What shallow-searching Fame hath left untold ; 

Which I full oft, amidst these shades alone. 

Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon. 

For know, by lot from Jove, I am the Power 

Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower, 45 

To nurse the saplings tall, and curl° the grove 

With ringlets quaint and wanton windings wove ; 

And all my plants I save from nightly ill 

Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill ; 

And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, 60 

And heal the harms of thwarting ° thunder blue, 

Or what the cross dire-looking planet ° smites, 

Or hurtful worm° with cankered venom bites. 

When evening grey doth rise, I fetch my round 

Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground ; 65 

And early, ere the odorous breath of morn 

Awakes the slumbering leaves, or tasselled° horn 



22 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about, 

Number my ranks, and visit every sprout 

With puissant ° words and murmurs ° made to bless. 60 

But else, in deep of night, when drowsiness 

Hath locked up mortal sense, then listen I 

To the celestial Sirens' harmony, ° 

That sit upon the nine infolded spheres. 

And sing to those that hold the vital shears, 65 

And turn the adamantine spindle round 

On which the fate of gods and men is wound. 

Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie. 

To lull the daughters of Necessity, 

And keep unsteady Nature to her law, 70 

And the low world in measured motion draw 

After the heavenly tune, which none can hear° 

Of human mould with gross unpurged ear. 

And yet such music worthiest were to blaze 

The peerless height of her immortal praise 75 

Whose lustre leads us, and for her most fit, 

If my inferior hand or voice could hit 

Inimitable sounds. Yet, as we go, 

Whate'er the skill of lesser gods can show 

I will assay, her worth to celebrate, 80 

And so attend ye toward her glittering state ;° 



ARCADES 23 

Where ye may all, that are of noble stem, 
Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. 

II. Song 

O'er the smooth enamelled green, 

Where no print of step hath been, 85 

Follow me, as I sing 

And touch the warbled string : 
Under the shady roof 
Of branching elm star-proof 

Follow me. 90 

I will bring you where she sits, 
Clad in splendor as befits 

Her deity. 
Such a rural Queen 
All Arcadia hath not seen. 95 

III. Song 

Nymphs and Shepherds, dance no more 

By sandy Ladon's° lilied banks ; 
On old Lyc8eus,° or Cyllene° hoar, 

Trip no more in twilight ranks ; 
Though Erymarith° your loss deplore, lOO 



24 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

A better soil shall give ye thanks. 
From the stony M8enalus° 
Bring your flocks, and Hve with us ; 
Here ye shall have greater grace, 
To serve the Lady of this place. 105 

Though Syrinx° your Pan's mistress were, 
Yet Syrinx well might wait on her. 

Such a rural Queen 

All Arcadia hath not seen. 



GOMUS 25 

COMUS 

"a masque presented at LUDLOW CASTLE, 1634, &C." 

(For the Title-pages of the Editions of 1637 and 1645 see Notes at p. 000 

and p. 000.) 

DEDICATION OF LAWES' EDITION OF 1637. 

(Reprinted in the Edition of 1645, but omitted in that of 1673.) 

" To the Right Honourable John, Lord Brackley, son and 
heir-apparent to the Earl of Bridgewater, cfcc." 
" My Lord, 

" This Poem, which received its first occa- 
sion of birth from yourself and others of your noble family, 
and much honour from your own person in the performance, 
now returns again to make a final dedication of itself to 
you. Although not openly acknowledged by the Author, 
yet it is a legitimate offspring, so lovely and so much de- 
sired that the often copying of it hath tired my pen to give 
my several friends satisfaction, and brought me to a neces- 
sity of producing it to the public view, and now to offer it 
up, in all rightful devotion, to those fair hopes and rare en- 
dowments of your much-promising youth, which give a full 
assurance to all that know you of a future excellence. Live, 
sweet Lord, to be the honour of your name ; and receive 
this as your own from the hands of him who hath by many 
favours been long obliged to your most honoured Parents, 
and, as in this representation your attendant Thyrsis, so 
now in all real expression 

" Your faithful and most humble Servant, 

." H. Lawes." 



26 MILTON S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



*' The Copy of a Letter written hy Sir Henry Wotton to the 

Author upon the following poem^ 

(In the Edition of 1645 ; omitted in that of 1673.) 

" From the College, this 13 of April, 1638. 

" Sir, 

" It was a special favour when you lately be- 
stowed upon me here the first taste of your acquaintance, 
though no longer than to make me know that I wanted 
more time to value it and to enjoy it rightly ; and, in truth, 
if I could then have imagined your farther stay in these 
parts, which I understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would 
have been bold, in our vulgar phrase, to mend my draught 
(for you left me with an extreme thirst), and to have begged 
your conversation again, jointly with your said learned 
friend, over a poor meal or two, that we might have banded 
together some good Authors of the ancient time ; among 
which I observed you to have been familiar. 

" Since your going, you have charged me with new obliga- 
tions, both for a very kind letter from you dated the 6th 
of this month, and for a dainty piece of entertainment 
which came therewith. Wherein I should much commend 
the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish me with a cer- 
tain Doric delicacy in your Songs and Odes, whereunto I 
must plainly confess to have seen yet nothing parallel in 
our language : Ipsa mollities. But I must not omit to tell 
you that I now only owe you thanks for intimating unto 
me (how modestly soever) the true artificer. For the work 
itself I had viewed some good while before with singular 



coMus 27 

delight ; having received it from our common friend Mr. 
R., in the very close of the late R.'s Poems, printed at Ox- 
ford : whereunto it was added (as I now suppose) that the 
accessory might help out the principal, according to the 
art of Stationers, and to leave the reader con la bocca dolce. 

" Now, Sir, concerning your travels ; wherein I may chal- 
lenge a little more privilege of discourse with you. I sup- 
pose you will not blanch Paris in your way : therefore I 
have been bold to trouble you with a few lines to Mr. M. B., 
whom you shall easily find attending the young Lord S. 
as his governor ; and you may surely receive from him good 
directions for the shaping of your farther journey into Italy 
where he did reside, by my choice, some time for the King, 
after mine own recess from Venice. 

" I should think that your best line will be through the 
whole length of France to Marseilles, and thence by sea 
to Genoa ; whence the passage into Tuscany is as diurnal 
as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to Florence 
or Siena, the rather to tell you a short story, from the in- 
terest you have given me in your safety. 

"At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto 
Scipioni, an old Roman courtier in dangerous times ; having 
been steward to the Duca di Pagliano, who with all his 
family were strangled, save this only man that escaped by 
foresight of the tempest. With him I had often much chat 
of those affairs, into which he took pleasure to look back 
from his native harbour ; and, at my departure toward 
Rome (which had been the centre of his experience), I had 
won his confidence enough to beg his advice how I might 



28 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

carry myself there without offence of others or of mine own 
conscience. ' Signor Arrigo 7nio,' says he, ' / pensieri 
stretti ed il viso sciolto will go safely over the whole world.' 
Of which Delphian oracle (for so I have found it) your 
judgment doth need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, 
I will commit you, with it, to the best of all securities, God's 
dear love, remaining 

." Your friend, as much to command as any of longer date, 

." Henry Wotton." 
Postscript 

" Sir : I have expressly sent this my footboy to prevent 
your departure without some acknowledgment from me 
of the receipt of your obliging letter ; having myself through 
some business, I know not how, neglected the ordinary con- 
veyance. In any part where I shall understand you fixed, 
I shall be glad and diligent to entertain you with home- 
novelties, even for some fomentation of our friendship, too 
soon interrupted in the cradle." 



30 MILTON^S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



THE PERSONS 

The Attendant Spirit, afterwards in the habit of Thyrsis. 

CoMus, with his Crew. 

The Lady. 

First Brother. 

Second Brother. 

Sabrina, the Nymph. 

The Chief Persons which presented were : — 

The Lord Brackley ; 

Mr. Thomas Egerton, his Brother ; 

The Lady Alice Egerton. 

[This list of the Persons, &c., appeared in the Edition of 1645, but was 
omitted in that of 1673.] 



COMUS 31 



COMUS 



The first Scene discovers a wild wood 

The Attendant Spirit descends or enters 

Before the starry threshold of Jove's court 
My mansion is, where those ° immortal shapes 
Of bright aerial spirits live insphered° 
In regions mild of calm and serene ° air, 
Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot 5 

Which men call Earth, and, with low-thoughted care, 
Confined and pestered ° in this pinfold ° here. 
Strive to keep up a frail and feverish being. 
Unmindful of the crown that Virtue gives. 
After this mortal change, ° to her true servants lo 
Amongst the enthroned gods° on sainted seats. 
Yet some there be that by due° steps aspire 
To lay their just hands on that golden key° 
That opes the palace of eternity. 
To such my errand is ; and, but for such, 15 

I would not soil these pure ambrosial weeds ° 
With the rank vapours of this sin- worn mould. ° 
But to my task. Neptune, besides the sway 
Of every salt flood and each ebbing stream, 



32 MILTON'S COM US AND OTHER POEMS 

Took in, by lot 'twixt high and nether Jove,° 20 

Imperial rule of all the sea-girt isles 

That, hke to rich and various gems, inlay 

The unadorned ° bosom of the deep ; 

Which he, to grace his tributary gods. 

By course commits to several ° government, 25 

And gives them leave to wear their sapphire crowns 

And wield their little tridents. But this Isle,° 

The greatest and the best of all the main, 

He quarters° to his blue-haired° deities ; 

And all this tract° that fronts the falling sun 30 

A noble Peer° of mickle° trust and power 

Has in his charge, with tempered awe to guide 

An old and haughty ° nation, proud in arms : 

Where his fair offspring, nursed in princely lore, 

Are coming to attend their father's state, ° 35 

And new-intrusted sceptre. But their way 

Lies through the perplexed ° paths of this drear wood. 

The nodding horror° of whose shady brows 

Threats the forlorn and wandering passenger ; 

And here their tender age might suffer peril, 40 

But that, by quick command from sovran Jove, 

I was despatched for their defence and guard ! 

And listen why ; for I will tell you now 



COMUS 33 

What never yet was heard in tale or song, 

From old or modern bard, in hall or bower. ° 45 

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape 
Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine, 
After the Tuscan mariners transformed, ° 
Coasting the Tyrrhene shore, ° as the winds listed, ° 
On Circe's island fell. (Who knows not Circe, ° 50 
The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup 
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape 
And downward fell into a grovelling swine?) 
This Nymph, that gazed upon his clustering locks 
With ivy berries wreathed, and his blithe youth, 55 
Had by him, ere he parted thence, a son° 
Much like his father, but his mother more, 
Whom therefore she brought up, and Comus° named : 
Who, ripe° and frolic of his full-grown age,° 
Roving the Celtic and Iberian fields, ° 60 

At last betakes him to this ominous wood. 
And, in thick shelter of black shades imbowered, 
Excels his mother at her mighty art ; 
Offering to every weary traveller 
His orient ° liquor in a crystal glass, 65 

To quench the drouth of Phoebus ;° which as they 
taste 



34 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

(For most do taste through fond° intemperate thirst), 

Soon as the potion works, their human count'nance. 

The express resemblance ° of the gods, is changed 

Into some brutish form of wolf or bear, 70 

Or ounce ° or tiger, hog, or bearded goat, 

All other parts remaining as they were. 

And they, so perfect is their misery, 

Not once perceive their foul disfigurement. 

But boast themselves more comely than before, 75 

And all their friends and native home forget, 

To roll with pleasure in a sensual sty.° 

Therefore, when any favoured of high Jove 

Chances to pass through this adventurous ° glade, 

Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 80 

I shoot from heaven, to give him safe convoy. 

As now I do. But first I must put off 

These my sky-robes spun out of Iris' woof,° 

And take the weeds and likeness of a swain 

That to the service of this house belongs, 85 

Who, with his soft pipe and smooth-dittied song, 

Well knows to° still the wild winds when they roar. 

And hush the waving woods ; nor of less faith, ° 

And in this office of his mountain watch 

Likeliest, and nearest to the present aid 90 



COMUS 35 

Of this occasion. ° But I hear the tread 
Of hateful steps ; I must be viewless now. 

CoMUS enters, with a charming-rod in one hand, his glass in the other; with 
him a rout of monsters, headed like sundry sorts of wild beasts, but otherwise 
like men and women, their apparel glistening. They come in making a 
riotous and unruly noise, with torches in their hands. 

Comus. The star° that bids the shepherd fold 
Now the top of heaven doth hold ; 
And the gilded car of day 95 

His glowing axle doth allay 
In the steep° Atlantic stream :° 
And the slope ° sun his upward beam 
Shoots against the dusky ° pole, 
Pacing toward the other goal 100 

Of his chamber in the east.° 
Meanwhile, welcome joy and feast, 
Midnight shout and revelry, 
Tipsy dance and jollity. 

Braid your locks with rosy twine, ° 105 

Dropping odours, dropping wine. 
Rigour now is gone to bed ; 
And Advice with scrupulous head. 
Strict Age, and sour Severity, 
With their grave saws,° in slumber lie. no 



36 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

We, that are of purer fire, 

Imitate the starry quire, ° 

Who, in their nightly watchful spheres, ° 

Lead in swift round the months and years. 

The sounds and seas, with all their finny drove, 115 

Now to the moon in wavering morrice° move ; 

And on the tawny sands and shelves 

Trip the pert° fairies and the dapper ° elves. 

By dimpled brook and fountain-brim. 

The wood-nymphs, decked with daisies trim, 120 

Their merry wakes ° and pastimes keep : 

What hath night to do with sleep ? 

Night hath better sweets to prove ; 

Venus now wakes, and wakens Love. 

Come, let us our rites begin ; 125 

'Tis only daylight that makes sin. 

Which these dun shades will ne'er report. 

Hail, goddess of nocturnal sport. 

Dark-veiled Cotytto,° to whom the secret flame 

Of midnight torches burns ! mysterious dame, 130 

That ne'er art called ° but when the dragon womb° 

Of Stygian darkness spets° her thickest gloom, 

And makes one blot of all the air ! 

Stay thy cloudy ebon chair, 



COMUS 37 

Wherein thou ridest with Hecat',° and befriend 135 

Us thy vowed priests, till utmost end 

Of all thy dues be done, and none left out, 

Ere the blabbing eastern scout, 

The nice° Morn on the Indian° steep, 

From her cabined loop-hole° peep, 140 

And to the tell-tale Sun descry 

Our concealed solemnity. 

Come, knit hands, and beat the ground 

In a light fantastic ° round. ° 

The Measure ° 

Break off, break off ! I feel the different pace° 145 
Of some chaste footing near about this ground. 
Run to your shrouds ° within these brakes° and trees ; 
Our number may affright. Some virgin sure 
(For so I can distinguish by mine art) 
Benighted in these woods ! Now to my charms, 150 
And to my wily trains :° I shall ere long 
Be well stocked with as fair a herd as grazed 
About my mother Circe. Thus I hurl° 
My dazzling spells into the spongy air,° 
Of power to cheat the eye with blear illusion, ° 155 
And give it false presentments, ° lest the place 



38 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And my quaint° habits° breed astonishment, 

And put the damsel to suspicious flight ; 

Which must not be, for that's against my course. 

I, under fair pretence of friendly ends, 160 

And well-placed words of glozing° courtesy. 

Baited with reasons not unplausible. 

Wind me° into the easy-hearted man. 

And hug him into snares. When once her eye 

Hath met the virtue ° of this magic dust 165 

I shall appear some harmless villager, 

Whom thrift keeps up about his country gear.° 

But here she comes ; I fairly° step aside. 

And hearken, if I may her business hear. 

The Lady enters 

Lady. This way the sound was, if mine ear be 
true, 
My best guide now. Methought it was the sound 171 
Of riot and ill-managed merriment, 
Such as the jocund flute or gamesome pipe 
Stirs up among the loose° unlettered hinds, 
When, for their teeming flocks and granges" full, 175 
In wanton dance they praise the bounteous Pan,° 
And thank the gods amiss. I should be loth 



COMUS 39 

To meet tlie rudeness and swilled insolence^ 

Of such late wassailers ;° yet, oh ! where else 

Shall I inform my unacquainted feet 180 

In the blind mazes of this tangled wood ? 

My brothers, when they saw me wearied out 

With this long way, resolving here to lodge 

Under the spreading favour of these pines, 

Stepped, as they said, to the next thicket-side 185 

To bring me berries, or such cooling fruit 

As the kind hospitable woods provide. 

They left me then when the grey-hooded Even, 

Like a sad° votarist° in palmer's ° weed. 

Rose from the hindmost wheels of Phoebus' wain.° 190 

But where they are, and why they come not back. 

Is now the labour of my thoughts. 'Tis likeliest 

They had engaged ° their wandering steps too far ; 

And envious darkness, ere they could return. 

Had stole° them from me. Else, O thievish Night, 

Why should'st thou, but for some felonious end, 195 

In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars 

That Nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps 

With everlasting oil, to give due light 

To the misled and lonely traveller ? 200 

This is the place, as well as I may guess. 



40 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Whence even now the tumult of loud mirth 

Was rife,° and perfect ° in my listening ear ; 

Yet nought but single ° darkness do I find. 

What might this be ? A thousand fantasies 205 

Begin to throng into my memory, 

Of calling shapes, and beckoning shadows dire, 

And airy tongues that syllable men's names 

On sands and shores and desert wildernesses. 

These thoughts may startle well,° but not astound 210 

The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended 

By a strong siding° champion, Conscience. 

0, welcome, pure-eyed Faith, white-handed Hope, 

Thou hovering angel girt with golden wings, 

And thou unblemished form of Chastity !° 215 

I see ye visibly, and now believe 

That He, the Supreme Good, to whom all things ill 

Are but as slavish officers of vengeance, 

Would send a glistering ° guardian, if need were. 

To keep my life and honour unassailed. ... 220 

Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night ? 

I did not err : there does a sable cloud 

Turn forth her silver lining on the night, 

And casts ° a gleam over this tufted grove. 225 



GOMUS 41 

I cannot hallo to my brothers, but 
Such noise as I can make to be heard farthest 
ril venture ; for my new-enlivened spirits 
Prompt me, and they perhaps are not far off. 

Song 

Sweet Echo,° sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen 230 
Within thy airy sheir 
By slow Meander's ° margent° green. 
And in the violet-embroidered vale 

Where the love-lorn nightingale 
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well : 235 
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair 
That likest thy Narcissus ° are ? 
O, if thou have 

Hid them in some flowery cave. 

Tell me but where, 240 

Sweet Queen of Parley, ° Daughter of the Sphere !° 
So may'st thou be translated to the skies. 
And give resounding grace° to all Heaven's harmonies ! 

Comus. Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 
Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment ? 245 
Sure something holy lodges in that breast. 



42 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And with these raptures moves the vocal ° air 

To testify his° hidden residence. 

How sweetly did they float upon the wings 

Of silence, through the empty-vaulted night, 250 

At every fall° smoothing the raven down 

Of darkness till it smiled ! I have oft heard 

My mother Circe with the Sirens ° three, 

Amidst the flowery-kirtled° Naiades, ° 

Culling their potent herbs and baleful drugs, 255 

Who, as they sung, would take the prisoned soul, 

And lap it in Elysium :° Scylla° wept, 

And chid her barking waves into attention, 

And fell Charybdis murmured soft applause. 

Yet they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, 260 

And in sweet madness robbed it of itself ; 

But such a sacred and home-felt ° delight. 

Such sober certainty of waking bliss, 

I never heard till now. I'll speak to her, 

And she shall be my queen. — Hail, foreign wonder [ 

Whom certain these rough shades did never breed, 266 

Unless° the goddess that in rural shrine 

Dwell'st here with Pan° or Sylvan, ° by blest song 

Forbidding every bleak unkindly fog 

To touch the prosperous growth of this tall wood. 270 



COMUS 43 

Lady. Nay, gentle shepherd, ill is lost° that praise 
That is addressed to unattending ears. 
Not any boast of skill, but extreme shift° 
How to regain my severed company, 
Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo 275 

To give me answer from her mossy couch. 

Comus. What chance, good Lady, hath bereft you 

thus? 
Lady. Dim darkness and this heavy labyrinth. 
Comus. Could that divide you from near-ushering 

guides ? 
Lady. They left me weary on a grassy turf. 280 
Comus. By falsehood, or discourtesy, or why ? 
Lady. To seek i' the valley some cool friendly 

spring. 
Comus. And left your fair side all unguarded, 

Lady? 
Lady. They were but twain, and purposed quick 

return. 
Comus. Perhaps forestalling^ night prevented 

them. 
Lady. How easy my misfortune is to hit !° 286 
Comus. Imports their loss,° beside the present 
need? 



44 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Lady. No less than if I should my brothers lose. 

Comus. Were they of manly prime, or youthful 
bloom ? 

Lady. As smooth as Hebe's ° their unrazored lips.° 

Comus. Two such I saw, what time° the laboured° 
ox 291 

In his loose traces from the furrow came. 
And the swinked° hedger at his supper sat. 
I saw them under a green mantling vine. 
That crawls along the side of yon small hill, 295 

Plucking ripe clusters from the tender shoots ; 
Their port° was more than human, as they stood. 
I took it for a faery vision 
Of some gay creatures of the element, ° 
That in the colours of the rainbow live, 300 

And play i' the plighted° clouds. I was awe-strook,° 
And, as I passed, I worshipped. If those you seek, 
It were a journey like the path to Heaven 
To help you find them. 

Lady. Gentle villager. 

What readiest way would bring me to that place ? 305 

Comus. Due west it rises from this shrubby point. 

Lady. To find out that, good shepherd, I suppose, 
In such a scant allowance of star-light. 



COMUS 45 

Would overtask the best land-pilot's art, 

Without the sure guess of well-practised feet. 310 

Comus. I know each lane, and every alley green, 
Dingle, ° or bushy dell,° of this wild wood. 
And every bosky bourn° from side to side, 
My daily walks and ancient neighbourhood ; 
And, if your stray attendance*^ be yet lodged, 315 
Or shroud° within these limits, I shall know 
Ere morrow wake, or the low-roosted ° lark 
From her thatched pallet ° rouse. ° If otherwise, 
I can conduct you. Lady, to a low 
But loyal cottage, where you may be safe 320 

Till further quest. 

Lady. Shepherd, I take thy word 

And trust thy honest-offered courtesy, 
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds. 
With smoky rafters, than in tapestry halls 
And courts ° of princes, where it first was named, 325 
And yet is most pretended. In a place 
Less warranted ° than this, or less secure, 
I cannot be, that I should fear to change it. 
Eye me, blest Providence, and square° my trial 
To my proportioned strength ! shepherd, lead 
on. . . . 330 



46 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



The Two Brothers 

Eld. Bro. Unmuffle, ye faint stars ; and thou, fair 
moon, 
That wont'st to love the traveller's bemson,° 
Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud. 
And disinherit ° Chaos, that reigns here 
In double night of darkness and of shades ; 335 

Or, if your influence be quite dammed up 
With black usurping mists, some gentle taper, 
Though a rush-candle ° from the wicker hole° 
Of some clay habitation, visit us 
With thy long levelled rule° of streaming light, 340 
And thou shalt be our star of Arcady,° 
Or Tyrian° Cynosure. ° 

Sec. Bro. Or, if our eyes 

Be barred that happiness, might we but hear 
The folded flocks, penned in their wattled cotes, ° 
Or sound of pastoral reed with oaten stops, °,<'' 345 
Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock 
Count the night-watches to his feathery dames, 
'Twould be some solace yet, some little cheering. 
In this close dungeon of innumerous° boughs. 
But, oh, that hapless virgin, our lost sister ! 350 



GOMUS 47 

Where may she wander now, whither betake her 
From the chill dew, amongst rude burs and thistles ? 
Perhaps some cold bank is her bolster now, 
Or 'gainst the rugged bark of some broad elm 
Leans ° her unpillowed head, fraught with sad fears. 
What if ° in wild amazement and affright, 356 

Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp 
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat !° 

Eld. Bro. Peace, brother : be not over-exquisite 
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils ;° 360 

For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown, 
What need a man forestall his date of grief. 
And run to meet what he would most avoid ? 
Or, if they be but false alarms of fear, 
How bitter is such self-delusion ! 365 

I do not think my sister so to seek,° 
Or so unprincipled ° in virtue's book. 
And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever, 
As that the single want of light and noise 
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not) 370 

Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts, 
And put them into misbecoming plight. ° 
Virtue could see to do what Virtue would 
By her own radiant light, though sun and moon 



48 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375 

Oft seeks to° sweet retired solitude, 

Where, with her best nurse Contemplation, 

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, 

That, in the various bustle of resort, 

Were all to-ruffled, ° and sometimes impaired. 380 

He that has light within his own clear breast 

May sit i' the centre, ° and enjoy bright day : 

But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts 

Benighted walks under the mid-day sun ; 

Himself is his own dungeon. 

Sec. Bro. 'Tis most true 385 

That musing Meditation most affects ° 
The pensive secrecy of desert cell. 
Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds, 
And sits as safe as in a senate-house ; 
For who would rob a hermit of his weeds, ° 390 

His few books, or his beads, ° or maple dish, 
Or do his grey hairs any violence ? 
But Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree° 
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard 
Of dragon-watch with unenchanted° eye 395 

To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit, 
From the rash hand of bold Incontinence. 



C0MU8 49 

You may as well spread out the unsunned ° heaps 

Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den, 

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope 400 

Danger will wink on° Opportunity, 

And let a single helpless maiden pass 

Uninjured in this wild surrounding waste. 

Of night or loneliness it recks me not ;° 

I fear the dread events that dog them both, 405 

Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person 

Of our unowned ° sister. 

Eld. Bro. I do not, brother, 

Infer ° as if I thought my sister's state 
Secure without all doubt or controversy ; 
Yet, where an equal poise of hope and fear 4io 

Does arbitrate the event, my nature is 
That I inchne to hope rather than fear, 
And gladly banish squint ° suspicion. 
My sister is not so defenceless left 
As you imagine ; she has a hidden strength, 415 

Which you remember not. 

Sec. Bro. What hidden strength. 

Unless the strength of Heaven, if you mean that ? 

Eld. Bro. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, 
, Which, if ° Heaven gave it, may be termed her own. 

E 






50 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity : 420 

She that has that is clad in complete steel, 

And, like a quivered nymph with arrows keen, 

May trace ° huge forests, and unbarboured° heaths. 

Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds ; 

Where, through the sacred rays of chastity, 425 

No savage fierce, bandite,° or mountaineer. 

Will dare to soil her virgin purity. 

Yea, there where very desolation dwells. 

By grots and caverns shagged with horrid ° shades. 

She may pass on with unblenched° majesty 430 

Be it not done in pride, or in presumption. 

Some say no evil thing that walks by night, 

In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, 

Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost. 

That breaks his magic chains at curfew ° time, 435 

No goblin or swart faery of the mine,° 

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity. 

Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call 

Antiquity from the old schools of Greece 

To testify the arms of chastity ? 440 

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow, 

Fair silver-shafted queen for ever chaste, 

Wherewith she tamed the brinded° lioness 



COMUS 51 

And spotted mountain-pard, but set at nought 
The frivolous bolt of Cupid ; gods and men 445 

Feared her stern frown, and she was queen o' the 

woods. 
What was that snaky-headed Gorgon° shield 
That wise Minerva wore, unconquered virgin, 
Wherewith she freezed her foes to congealed stone. 
But rigid looks of chaste austerity, 450 

And noble grace that dashed brute violence 
With sudden adoration and blank awe ? 
So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity 
That, when a soul is found sincerely so, 
A thousand liveried angels lackey ° her, 455 

Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, 
And in clear dream and solemn vision 
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear ; 
Till oft converse ° with heavenly habitants 
Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, 460 

The unpolluted temple of the mind. 
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, 
Till all be made immortal. But, when lust, 
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk. 
But most by lewd and lavish act of sin, 465 

Lets in defilement to the inward parts. 



52 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

The soul grows clotted by contagion, 

Imbodies, and imbrutes,° till she quite lose 

The divine property of her first being. 

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp 470 

Oft seen in charnel°-vaults and sepulchres, 

Lingering and sitting by a new-made grave, 

As loth to leave the body that it° loved. 

And linked itself by carnal sensualty° 

To a degenerate and degraded state. 475 

_ Sec. Bro. How charming is divine Philosophy ! 

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 

But musical as is Apollo's lute. 

And a perpetual feast of nectared° sweets, 

Where no crude surfeit reigns. 

Eld. Bro. List ! list ! I hear 480 

Some far-off hallo break the silent air. 

Sec. Bro. Methought so too ; what should it be ? 

Eld. Bro. For certain. 

Either some one, like us, night-foundered here, 
Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst, 
Some roving^ robber calling to his fellows. 485 

Sec. Bro. Heaven keep my sister ! Again, again, 
and near ! 
Best draw, and stand upon our guard. 



COMUS 53 

Eld. Bro. ril hallo. 

If he be friendly, he comes well : if not, 
Defence is a good cause, and Heaven be for us ! 

The Attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd 

That hallo I should know. What are you ? Speak. 
Come not too near ; you fall on iron stakes° else. 491 

Spir. What voice is that ? my young Lord ? speak 
again. 

Sec. Bro. brother, 'tis my father's Shepherd, 
sure. 

Eld. Bro. Thyrsis !° whose artful strains have oft 
delayed 
The huddling brook to hear his madrigal, ° 495 

And sweetened every musk-rose of the dale. 
How camest thou here, good swain ? Hath any ram 
Slipped from the fold, or young kid lost his dam. 
Or straggling wether the pent flock forsook? 
How couldst thou find this dark sequestered nook ? 500 

S-pir. O my loved master's heir, and his next° joy, 
I came not here on such a trivial toy° 
As a strayed ewe, or to pursue the stealth 
Of pilfering wolf ; not all the fleecy wealth 
That doth enrich these downs is worth a thought 505 



54 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

To° this my errand, and the care it brought. 
But, oh ! my virgin Lady, where is she ? 
How chance° she is not in your company? 

Eld. Bro. To tell thee sadly, ° Shepherd, without 
blame 
Or our neglect, we lost her as we came. 510 

Spir. Ay me unhappy ! then my fears are true. 
• Eld. Bro. What fears, good Thyrsis ? Prithee 
briefly shew. 

Spir. I'll tell ye. 'Tis not vain or fabulous 
(Though so esteemed by shallow ignorance) 
What the sage poets, ° taught by the heavenly Muse, 
Storied of old in high immortal verse 516 

Of dire Chimeras ° and enchanted isles, 
And rifted rocks whose entrance leads to Hell ; 
For such there be, but unbelief is bhnd. 

Within the navel ° of this hideous wood, 520 

Immured in cypress shades, a sorcerer dwells, 
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus, 
Deep skilled in all his mother's witcheries. 
And here to every thirsty wanderer 
By sly enticement gives his baneful cup, 525 

With many murmurs ° mixed, whose pleasing poison 
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks, 



COMUS 55 

And the inglorious likeness of a beast 

Fixes instead, unmoulding° reason's mintage 

Charactered in the face. This have I learnt 530 

Tending my flocks hard by i' the hilly crofts ° 

That brow° this bottom glade ; whence night by 

night 
He and his monstrous rout are heard to howl 
Like stabled wolves, ° or tigers at their prey, 
Doing abhorred rites to Hecate ° 535 

In their obscured haunts of irmiost bowers. 
Yet have they many baits and guileful spells 
To inveigle and invite the unwary sense 
Of them that pass unweeting° by the way. 
This evening late, by then° the chewing flocks 540 
Had ta'en their supper on the savoury herb 
Of knot-grass dew-besprent, ° and were in fold, 
I sat me down to watch upon a bank 
With ivy canopied, and interwove 
With flaunting honeysuckle, and began, 645 

Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy, 
To meditate ° my rural minstrelsy, 
Till fancy had her fill. But ere a close ° 
The wonted roar was up amidst the woods. 
And filled the air with barbarous dissonance ; 550 



56 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

At which I ceased, and hstened them awhile, 

Till an unusual stop° of sudden silence 

Gave respite to the drowsy-flighted ° steeds 

That draw the litter of close-curtained Sleep. 

At last a soft and solemn-breathing sound 555 

Rose like a steam of rich distilled perfumes, 

And stole upon the air, that even Silence° 

Was took° ere she was ware, and wished she might 

Deny her nature, and be never more. 

Still to be so displaced. I was all ear, 560 

And took in strains that might create a soul 

Under the ribs of Death. But, oh ! ere long 

Too well I did perceive it was the voice 

Of my most honoured Lady, your dear sister. 

Amazed ° I stood, harrowed with grief and fear ; 565 

And '0 poor hapless nightingale,' thought I, 

'How sweet thou sing'st, how near the deadly snare !' 

Then down the lawns ° I ran with headlong haste, 

Through paths and turnings often trod by day, 

Till, guided by mine ear, I found the place 570 

Where that damned wizard, hid in sly disguise 

(For so by certain signs I knew), had met 

Already, ere my best speed could prevent, ° 

The aidless innocent lady, his wished prey ; 



C0MU8 67 

Who gently asked if he had seen such two, 575 

Supposing him some neighbour villager. 

Longer I durst not stay, but soon I guessed 

Ye were the two she meant ; with that I sprung 

Into swift flight, till I had found you here ; 

But further know I not. 

Sec. Bro. O night and shades, 580 

How are ye joined with hell in triple knot 
Against the unarmed weakness of one virgin. 
Alone and helpless ! Is this the confidence 
You gave me, brother ? 

Eld. Bro. Yes, and keep it still ; 

Lean on it safely ; not a period ° 585 

Shall be unsaid for me. i Against the threats 
Of malice or of sorcery, or that power 
Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm : 
Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt. 
Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled ; 590 
Yea, even that which Mischief meant most harm 
Shall in the happy trial ° prove most glory. 
But evil on itself shall back recoil. 
And mix no more with goodness, when at last. 
Gathered like scum, and settled to itself, 695 

It shall be in eternal restless change 



58 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Self-fed and self-consumed. If this fail, 

The pillared firmament ° is rottenness, 

And earth's base built on stubble. But come, let's 

on ! 
Against the opposing will and arm of Heaven 600 
May never this just sword be lifted up ; 
But, for° that damned magician, let him be girt 
With all the griesly legions that troop 
Under the sooty flag° of Acheron, 
Harpies ° and Hydras, ° or all the monstrous forms 605 
'Twixt Africa and Ind, I'll find him out. 
And force him to return his purchase° back. 
Or drag him by the curls to a foul death, 
Cursed as his life. 

Spir. Alas ! good venturous youth, 

I love thy courage yet, and bold emprise ;° 6io 

But here thy sword can do thee Httle stead. ° 
Far other arms and other weapons must 
Be those that quell the might of hellish charms. 
He with his bare° wand can unthread thy joints, 
And crumble all thy sinews. 

Eld. Bro. Why, prithee. Shepherd, 

How durst thou then thyself approach so near 616 
As to make this relation ?° 



coMus 59 

Spir. Care and utmost shifts ° 

How to secure the Lady from surprisal 
Brought to my mind a certain shepherd lad,° 
Of small regard to see to, yet well skilled 620 

In every virtuous ° plant and healing herb 
That spreads her verdant leaf to the morning ray. 
He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing ; 
Which when I did, he on the tender grass 
Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy, 625 

And in requital ope his leathern scrip, ° 
And show me simples ° of a thousand names, 
Telling their strange and vigorous faculties. 
Amongst the rest a small unsightly root. 
But of divine effect, he culled me out. 630 

The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it. 
But in another country, as he said, 
Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil : 
Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain 
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon ;° 635 

And yet more med'cinal is it than that Moly° 
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave. 
He called it Haemony,^ and gave it me. 
And bade me keep it as of sovran° use 
'Gainst all enchantments, mildew blast, or damp, 640 



60 MILTON^ S COM US AND OTHER POEMS 

Or ghastly Furies' ° apparition. 

I pursed it up, but little reckoning made, 

Till now that this extremity compelled. 

But now I find it true ; for by this means 

I knew the foul enchanter, though disguised, 645 

Entered the very Hme-twigs° of his spells. 

And yet came off. If you have this about you 

(As I will give you when we go) you may 

Boldly assault the necromancer's hall, 

Where if he be, with dauntless hardihood 650 

And brandished blade rush on him : break his glass, 

And shed the luscious liquor on the ground ; 

But seize his wand. Though he and his curst crew 

Fierce sign of battle make, and menace high, 

Or, like the sons of Vulcan, vomit smoke, ° 655 

Yet will they soon retire, if he but shrink. 

Eld. Bro. Thyrsis, lead on apace ; I'll follow thee ; 
And some good angel bear a shield before us ! 

The Scene changes to a stately palace, set out with all manner of deliciousness : 
soft music, tables spread with all dainties. Comus appears with his rabble, 
and the Lady set in an enchanted Chair: to whom he offers his glass; which 
she puts by, and goes about ° to rise 

Comus. Nay, Lady, sit. If I but wave this wand. 
Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster, 660 



COMUS 61 

And you a statue, or as Daphne ° was, 
Root-bound, that fled Apollo. 

Lady. Fool, do not boast. 

Thou canst not touch the freedom of my mind 
With all thy charms, although this corporal rind° 
Thou hast immanacled while Heaven sees good. 665 

Comus. Why are you vexed, Lady ? why do you 
frown ? 
Here dwell no frowns, nor anger ; from these gates 
Sorrow flies far. See, here be all the pleasures 
That fancy can beget on youthful thoughts. 
When the fresh blood grows lively, and returns 670 
Brisk as the April buds in primrose season. 
And first behold this cordial julep ° here. 
That flames and dances in his° crystal bounds. 
With spirits of balm and fragrant syrups mixed. 
Not that Nepenthes, ° which the wife of Thone 675 
In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena 
Is of such power to stir up joy as this. 
To life so friendly, or so cool to thirst. 
Why should you be so cruel to yourself, ° 
And to those dainty limbs, which Nature lent 680 
For gentle usage and soft delicacy ? 
But you invert the covenants of her trust, 



62 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And harshly deal, like an ill borrower, 
With that which you received on other terms, 
Scorning the unexempt condition® 685 

By which all mortal frailty must subsist, 
Refreshment after toil, ease after pain, 
That° have been tired all day without repast, 
And timely rest have wanted. But, fair virgin, 
This will restore all soon. 

Lady. 'Twill not, false traitor ! 690 

'Twill not restore the truth and honesty 
That thou hast banished from thy tongue with lies. 
Was this the cottage and the safe abode 
Thou told'st me of ? What grim aspects® are these. 
These oughly°-headed monsters? Mercy guard 
me ! 695 

Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul de- 
ceiver ! 
Hast thou betrayed my credulous innocence 
With vizored® falsehood and base forgery ?° 
And wouldst thou seek again to trap me here 
With liquorish® baits, fit to ensnare a brute? 700 
Were it a draught for Juno when she banquets, 
I would not taste thy treasonous offer. None 
But such as are good men can give good things ; 



COMUS 63 

And that which is not good is not delicious 
To a well-governed and wise appetite. 705 

Comus. O foolishness of men ! that lend their ears 
To those budge ° doctors of the Stoic fur, 
And fetch their precepts from the Cynic tub,° 
Praising the lean and sallow Abstinence ! 
Wherefore did Nature pour her bounties forth 710 
With such a full and unwith drawing ° hand, 
Covering the earth with odours, fruits, and flocks, 
Thronging the seas with spawn innumerable. 
But all to° please and sate the curious° taste? 
And set to work millions of spinning worms, 715 

That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired 

silk. 
To deck her sons ; and, that no corner might 
Be vacant of her plenty, in her own loins 
She hutched ° the all- worshipped ore and precious 

gems, 
To store her children with. If all the world 720 

Should, in a pet of temperance, feed on pulse, ° 
Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, ° 
The All-giver would be unthanked, would be un- 

praised. 
Not half his riches known, and yet despised ; 



64 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

And we should serve him as a grudging master, 725 

As a penurious niggard of his wealth, 

And live like Nature's bastards, not her sons, 

Who° would be quite surcharged with her own weight, 

And strangled with her waste fertility : 

The earth cumbered, and the winged air darked with 

plumes, 730 

The herds would over-multitude their lords ; 
The sea o'erfraught would swell, and the unsought 

diamonds 
Would so emblaze the forehead of the deep, 
And so bestud with stars, that they below 
Would grow inured to light, and come at last 735 
To gaze upon the sun with shameless brows. 
List, Lady ; be not coy,° and be not cozened ° 
With that same vaunted name, Virginity. 
Beauty ° is Nature's coin ; must not be hoarded, 
But must be current ; and the good thereof 740 

Consists in mutual and partaken bliss, 
Unsavoury in the enjoyment of itself. 
If you let slip time, like a neglected rose 
It withers on the stalk with languished head. 
Beauty is Nature's brag,° and must be shown 745 
In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities, 



COMUS 65 

Where most may wonder at the workmanship. 
It is for homely features to keep home ; 
They had their name thence : coarse complexions 
And cheeks of sorry grain° will serve to ply 750 

The sampler/ and to tease° the huswife's wool. 
What need a vermeil-tinctured lip for that, 
Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn ? 
There was another meaning in these gifts ; 
Think what, and be advised ; you are but young 

yet. 755 

Lady. I had not thought to have unlocked my 

lips 
In this unhallowed air, but that this juggler 
Would think to charm my judgment, as mine eyes, 
Obtruding false rules pranked in reason's garb. 
I hate when vice can bolt° her arguments 760 

And virtue has no tongue to check her pride. 
Impostor ! do not charge most innocent Nature; 
As if she would her children should be riotous 
With her abundance. She, good cateress. 
Means her provision only to the good, 765 

That live according to her sober laws, 
And holy dictate of spare Temperance. 
If every just man that now pines with want 



66 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Had but a moderate and beseeming share 
Of that which lewdly-pampered Luxury 770 

Now heaps upon some few with vast excess, 
Nature's full blessings would be well-dispensed 
In superfluous even proportion, 
And she no whit encumbered with her store ; 
And then the Giver would be better thanked, 775 
His praise due paid : for swinish gluttony 
Ne'er looks to Heaven amidst his gorgeous feast, 
But with besotted base ingratitude 
Crams, and blasphemes his Feeder. Shall I go on? 
Or have I said enow ? To him that dares 780 

Arm his profane tongue with contemptuous words 
Against the sun-clad power of chastity 
Fain would I something say ; — yet to what end ? 
Thou hast nor ear, nor soul, to apprehend 
The sublime notion and high mystery 785 

That must be uttered to unfold the sage 
And serious doctrine of Virginity ; 
And thou art worthy that thou shouldst not know 
More happiness than this thy present lot. 
Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetoric, 790 

That hath so well been taught her dazzling 
fence ;° 



COMUS 67 

Thou art not fit to hear thyself convinced. 

Yet, should I try, the uncontrolled worth 

Of this pure cause would kindle my rapt spirits 

To such a flame of sacred vehemence 795 

That dumb things would be moved to sympathize, 

And the brute Earth would lend her nerves, and 

shake, 
Till all thy magic structures, reared so high, 
Were shattered into heaps o'er thy false head. 

Comus. She fables not. I feel that I do fear soo 
Her words set off° by some superior power ; 
And, though not mortal, yet a cold shuddering 

dew 
Dips me all o'er, as when the wrath of Jove° 
Speaks thunder and the chains of Erebus ° 
To some of Saturn's crew.° I must dissemble, 805 
And try her yet more strongly. — Come, no more ! 
This is mere moral babble, and direct 
Against the canon laws° of our foundation. ° 
I must not suffer this ; yet 'tis but the lees° 
And settUngs of a melancholy blood. 810 

But this will cure all straight ; one sip of this 
Will bathe the drooping spirits in delight 
Beyond the bliss of dreams. Be wise, and taste . . , 



6S MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

The Brothers rush in with swords drawn, wrest his glass out of his hand, and 
break it against the ground: his rout make sign of resistance, but are all 
driven in. The Attendant Spirit comes in 

Spir. What ! have you let the false enchanter 
scape ? 
O ye mistook ; ye should have snatched his 
wand, 815 

And bound him fast. Without his rod reversed, ° 
And backward mutters of dissevering power, 
We cannot free the Lady that sits here 
In stony fetters fixed and motionless. 
Yet stay : be not disturbed ; now I bethink me 820 
Some other means I have which may be used. 
Which once of Meliboeus° old I learnt, 
The soothest° shepherd that e'er piped on plains. 

There is a gentle Nymph not far from hence, 
That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn^ 

stream : 
Sabrina° is her name : a virgin pure ; 826 

Whilom she was the daughter of Locrine, 
That had the sceptre from his father Brute. 
She, guiltless damsel, flying the mad pursuit 
Of her enraged stepdame, Guenclolen, 830 

Commended her fair innocence to the flood 



COMUS 69 

That stayed her flight with his cross-flowing 

course. 
The water-nymphs, that in the bottom played, 
Held up their pearled wrists, and took her in. 
Bearing her straight to aged Nereus'° hall ; 835 

Who, piteous of her woes, reared her lank head. 
And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 
In nectared° lavers° strewed with asphodil,° 
And through the porch and inlet of each sense 
Dropt in ambrosial ° oils, till she revived, 840 

And underwent a quick immortal change, 
Made Goddess of the river. Still she retains 
Her maiden gentleness, and oft at eve 
Visits the herds along the twilight meadows, 
Helping" all urchin° blasts, and ill-luck signs 845 
That the shrewd meddling elf delights to make, 
Which she with precious vialed liquors heals : 
For which the shepherds, at their festivals, 
Carol her goodness loud in rustic lays, 
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream 850 
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils. 
And, as the old swain° said, she can unlock 
The clasping charm, and thaw the numbing spell, 
If she be right invoked in warbled song ; 



70 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

For maidenhood she loves, and will be swift 855 

To aid a virgin, such as was herself, 

In hard-besetting need. This will I try, 

And add the power of some adjuring verse. 

Song 
Sabrina fair, 

Listen where thou art sitting 860 

Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, 

In twisted braids of lilies knitting 
The loose train of thy amber-dropping ° hair ; 
Listen for dear honour's sake, 
Goddess of the silver lake, 865 

Listen and save ! 

Listen and appear to us. 

In name of great Oceanus, ° 

By the earth-shaking Neptune's ° mace, 

And Tethys'° grave majestic pace ; 870 

By hoary Nereus'° wrinkled look. 

And the Carpathian" wizard's hook ;° 

By scaly Triton's° winding shell. 

And old soothsaying Glaucus'° spell ; 

By Leucothea's° lovely hands, ° 875 



COMUS 71 

And her son that rules the strands: 



By Thetis' ° tinsel-sHppered feet, 

And the songs of Sirens sweet ; 

By dead Parthenope's° dear tomb, 

And fair Ligea's° golden comb, 880 

Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks 

Sleeking her soft alluring locks ; 

By all the nymphs that nightly dance 

Upon thy streams with wily glance ; 

Rise, rise, and heave thy rosy head 885 

From thy coral-paven bed, 

And bridle in thy headlong wave, 

Till thou our summons answered have. 

Listen and save ! 

Sabrina rises, attended by Water-nymphs, and sings 

By the rushy-fringed bank, 890 

Where grows the willow and the osier° dank,° 
My sliding chariot stays, 
Thick set with agate, and the azurn° sheen 
Of turkis° blue, and emerald green, 

That in the channel strays :° 895 

Whilst from off the waters fleet 
Thus I set my printless feet 



72 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

O'er the cowslip's velvet head, 

That bends not as I tread. 
Gentle swain, at thy request 900 

I am here ! 

Spiv, Goddess dear, 
We implore thy powerful hand 
To undo the charmed band 
Of true virgin here distressed 905 

Through the force and through the wile 
Of unblessed enchanter vile. 

Sahr. Shepherd, 'tis my office best 
To help ensnared chastity. 
Brightest Lady, look on me. 910 

Thus I sprinkle on thy breast 
Drops that from my fountain pure 
I have kept of precious cure ; 
Thrice upon thy finger's tip, 
Thrice upon thy rubied lip : 915 

Next this marbled venomed seat, 
Smeared with gums of glutinous heat,° 
I touch with chaste palms moist and cold. 
Now the spell hath lost his hold ; 
And I must haste ere morning hour 920 

To wait in Amphitrite's bower. ° 



COMUS 73 



Sabrina descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat 

Spir. Virgin, daughter of Locrine, 
Sprung of old Anchises' line,° 
May thy brimmed waves for this 
Their full tribute never miss 925 

From a thousand petty rills, 
That tumble down the snowy hills : 
Summer drouth or singed air 
Never scorch thy tresses ° fair, 
Nor wet October's torrent flood 930 

Thy molten crystal fill with mud ; 
May thy billows roll ashore 
The beryl and the golden ore ; 
May thy lofty head° be crowned 
With many a tower and terrace round, ° 935 

And here and there thy banks upon° 
With groves of myrrh and cinnamon. 

Come, Lady ; while Heaven lends us grace. 
Let us fly this cursed place. 
Lest the sorcerer us entice 940 

With some other new device. 
Not a waste or needless sound 
Till we come to holier ground. 



74 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

I shall be your faithful guide 

Through this gloomy covert wide ; 945 

And not many furlongs thence 

Is your Father's residence, 

Where this night are met in state 

Many a friend to gratulate° 

His wished presence, and beside 950 

All the swains that there abide 

With jigs and rural dance resort. 

We shall catch them at their sport, 

And our sudden coming there 

Will double all their mirth and cheer. 955 

Come, let us haste ; the stars grow high, 

But Night sits monarch yet in the mid sky. 

The Scene changes, presenting Ludlow Town, and the President's Castle: then 
come in Country Dancers; ° after them the Attendant Spirit, with the 
two Brothers and the Lady. 

Song 

Spir. Back, shepherds, back ! Enough your 
play 
Till next sun-shine holiday. 
Here be, without duck or nod, 960 

Other trippings to be trod 



COMUS 75 

Of lighter toes, and such court guise 

As Mercury° did first devise 

With the mincing Dryades° 

On the lawns and on the leas. 965 

This second Song presents them to their Father and Mother 

Noble Lord and Lady bright, 
I have brought ye new delight. 
Here behold so goodly grown 
Three fair branches of your own. 
Heaven hath timely tried their youth, 970 

Their faith, their patience, and their truth, 
And sent them here through hard assays° 
With a crown of deathless praise, 
To triumph in victorious dance 
O'er sensual folly and intemperance. 975 

The dances ended, the Spirit epiloguizes 

Spir. To the ocean now I fly. 
And those happy climes that lie 
Where day never shuts his eye, 
Up in the broad fields of the sky. 
There I suck the liquid air,° 980 

All amidst the gardens fair 



76 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Of Hesperus, ° and his daughters three 

That sing about the golden tree. 

Along the crisped ° shades and bowers 

Revels the spruce ° and jocund Spring ; 985 

The Graces° and the rosy-bosomed Hours° 

Thither all their bounties bring. 

There eternal Summer dwells. 

And west winds with musky wing 

About the cedarn° alleys fling 990 

Nard and cassia's ° balmy smells. 

Iris° there with humid bow 

Waters the odorous banks, that blow 

Flowers of more mingled hue 

Than her purfled° scarf can shew, 995 

And drenches with Elysian° dew 

(List, mortals, if your ears be true) 

Beds of hyacinth and roses. 

Where young Adonis ° oft reposes, 

Waxing well of his deep wound, ° looo 

In slumber soft, and on the ground 

Sadly sits the Assyrian queen. ° 

But far above, in spangled sheen. 

Celestial Cupid, her famed son, advanced. 

Holds his dear Psyche, ° sweet entranced loos 



COMUS 11 

After her wandering labours long, 

Till free consent the gods among 

Make her his eternal bride, 

And from her fair unspotted side 

Two blissful twins ° are to be born, lOio 

Youth and Joy ; so Jove hath sworn. 

But now my task is smoothly done ; 
I can fly, or I can run 
Quickly to the green earth's end, 
Where the bowed welkin° slow doth bend, 1015 
And from thence can soar as soon 
To the corners of the moon^ 
Mortals, that would follow me. 
Love Virtue ; she alone is free. 
She can teach ye how to climb 1C20 

Higher than the sphery chime ;° 
Or, if Virtue feeble were. 
Heaven itself would stoop to her.° 



78 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



LYCIDAS° 

In this Monody ° the Author bewails a learned Friend, unfortunately 
drowned in his passage from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637 ; and, by 
occasion," foretells the ruin of our corrupted Clergy, then in their height. 

Yet once more,° ye laurels, ° and once more, 

Ye myrtles° brown, ° with ivy° never sere,° 

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude, 

And with forced fingers rude 

Shatter" your leaves before the mellowing year.° 5 

Bitter constraint and sad occasion dear° 

Compels ° me to disturb your season due ; 

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, 

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer.° 

Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew lo 

Himself to° sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 

He must not float upon his watery bier 

Unwept, and welter° to the parching" wind, 

Without the meed° of some melodious" tear. 

Begin, then," Sisters of the sacred well" 15 

That from beneath the seat of Jove" doth spring ; 
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string. 
Hence with denial vain and coy" excuse : 



LYCIDAS 79 

So may some gentle Muse° 

With lucky ° words favour 7ny destined urn, 20 

And as he° passes turn, 

And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud ! 

For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,° 
Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill ; 
Together both, ere the high lawns° appeared 25 

Under the opening eyelids of the Morn, 
We drove a-field, and both together heard 
What time the grey-fly ° winds her sultry horn, 
Battening° our flocks with the fresh dews of night. 
Oft till the star° that rose at evening bright 30 

Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering 

wheel. 
Meanwhile the rural ditties were not mute ; 
Tempered to the oaten flute 

Rough Satyrs° danced, and Fauns° with cloven heel 
From the glad sound would not be absent long ; 35 
And old Damoetus° loved to hear our song. 

But, oh ! the heavy change, now thou art gone, • 
Now thou art gone and never must return ! 
Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves. 
With wild thyme and the gadding ° vine o'ergrown, 40 
And all their echoes, mourn. 



80 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

The willows, and the hazel copses green, 

Shall now no more be seen 

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 

As killing as the canker° to the rose, 45 

Or taint-worm ° to the weanling° herds that graze, 

Or frost to flowers, that their gay wardrobe wear, 

When first the white-thorn° blows ; 

Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. 

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless 

deep 50 

Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 
For neither were ye playing on the steep ° 
Where your old bards, the famous Druids, ° lie, 
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona° high, 
Nor yet where Deva° spreads her wizard° stream. 55 
Ay me ! I fondly° dream 
''Had ye been there," ... for what could that have 

done ? 
What could the Muse herself that Orpheus ° bore. 
The Muse° herself, for her enchanting son, 
Whom universal nature did lament, 60 

When, by the rout° that made the hideous roar, 
His gory visage down the stream was sent, 
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ? 



LYCIDAS 81 

Alas ! what boots it° with uncessant° care 
To tend the homely, slighted, shepherd's trade, ° 65 
And strictly meditate^ the thankless° Muse ? 
Were it not better done, as others use,° 
To sport with AmarylHs" in the shade. 
Or with the tangles of Nesera's" hair?° 
Fame is the spur that the clear ° spirit doth raise 70 
(That last infirmity° of noble mind) 
To scorn delights and Hve laborious days ; 
But the fair guerdon° when we hope to find, 
And think to burst out into sudden blaze. 
Comes the blind Fury° with the abhorred shears, 75 
And slits the thin-spun life. ''But not the praise," 
Phoebus ° rephed, and touched my trembling ears :° 
"Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 
Nor in the glistering foil° 

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies, 80 
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ;° 
As he pronounces lastly on each deed. 
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed." 

O fountain Arethuse, ° and thou honoured flood, 85 
Smooth-sliding Mincius,° crowned with vocal reeds. 
That strain° I heard was of a higher mood.° 

G 



82 MILTON^ S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



But now my oat proceeds, 

And listens to the Herald of the Sea, 

That came in Neptune's plea.° 90 

He asked the waves, and asked the feIon° winds, 

What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain? 

And questioned every gust of rugged ° wings 

That blows from off each beaked promontory. 

They knew not of his story ; 95 

And sage Hippotades° their answer brings, 

That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed, 

The air was calm, and on the level brine 

Sleek Panope° with all her sisters played. 

It was that fatal and perfidious bark, lOO 

Built in the eclipse, ° and rigged with curses dark. 

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 

Next, Camus, ° reverend sire, went footing slow. 
His mantle hairy, ° and his bonnet sedge, ° 
Inwrought° with figures dim,° and on the edge 105 
Like to that sanguine flower° inscribed with woe. 
'^Ah! who hath reft," quoth he, ''my dearest 

pledge ?"° 
Last came, and last did go, 
The Pilot of the Galilean Lake ;° 
Two massy keys° he bore of metals twain no 



LYCIDAS 83 

(The golden opes, the iron° shuts amain). 

He shook his mitred locks, ° and stern bespake :° — 

''How well could I have spared°for thee, young swain, 

Enow° of such as, for their bellies' sake. 

Creep, and intrude, and climb ° into the fold ! 115 

Of other care they little reckoning make 

Than how to scramble at the shearers' feast, 

And shove away the worthy bidden guest. ° 

BHnd mouths !° that scarce themselves know how to 

hold 
A sheep-hook, or have learnt aught else the least 120 
That to the faithful herdman's° art belongs ! 
What recks it them ?° What need they ? They are 

sped ;° 
And, when they list,° their lean and flashy songs° 
Grate on their scrannel ° pipes of wretched straw ; 
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 

But, swoln with wind and the rank° mist they 

draw, ° 
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ; 
Besides what the grim wolf° with privy paw° 
Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 
But that two-handed engine ° at the door 130 

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 



84 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

Return, Alpheus ;° the dread voice ° is past 
That shrunk thy streams f return, Sicilian Muse,° 
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 

Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use° 
Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks. 
On whose fresh lap the swart star° sparely° looks, 
Throw hither all your quaint ° enamelled° eyes,° 
That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, uo 
And purple ° all the ground with vernal flowers. 
Bring the rathe° primrose that forsaken° dies, 
The tufted crow-toe, ° and pale jessamine. 
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, 
The glowing violet, 145 

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine. 
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears ; 
Bid amaranthus° all his beauty shed. 
And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 150 

To strew the laureate hearse ° where Lycid lies. 
For so, to interpose a little ease, 
Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. ° 
Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 
Wash far away, where'er thy bones are hurled ; 155 



LYCIDAS 85 

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, ° 
Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 
Visit 'st the bottom of the monstrous ° world ; 
Or whether thou, to our moist ° vows denied, 
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old,° ico 

Where the great Vision° of the guarded mount ° 
Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold.° 
Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth :° 
And, O ye dolphins, ° waft the hapless youth. 

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, 165 
For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead. 
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
So sinks the day-star° in the ocean bed, 
And yet anon repairs his drooping head. 
And tricks° his beams, and with new-spangled ore° 170 
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
Through the dear might of Him° that walked the 

waves. 
Where, other groves and other streams along, 
With nectar° pure his oozy° locks he laves, 175 

And hears the unexpressive° nuptial ° song, 
In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 
There entertain him all the Saints above, 



86 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 

In solemn troops, and sweet societies, 

That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 

And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes. 

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more ; 

Henceforth thou art the Genius ° of the shore, 

In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 

To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 

Thus sang the uncouth ° swain to the oaks and rills, 
While the still morn went out with sandals grey : 
He touched the tender stops ° of various quills,° 
With eager thought warbKng his Doric ° lay : 
And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, ° 190 
And now was dropt into the western bay. 
At last he rose, and twitched° his mantle blue : 
To-morrow to fresh woods,° and pastures new. 



ON HIS BLINDNESS 87 



ON HIS BLINDNESS^ 

When I consider how my light is spent 

Ere half my days° in this dark world and wide, 
And that one talent ° which is death to hide 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent 

To serve there with my Maker, and present 5 

My true account, lest He returning chide, 
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?'' 
I fondly ° ask. But Patience, to prevent 

That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need 
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best lo 
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state 

Is kingly : thousands° at his bidding speed, 
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
They also serve who only stand and wait." 



88 MILTON'S COMUS AND OTHER POEMS 



ON HIS DECEASED WIFE° 

Methought° I saw° my late espoused saint 
Brought to me like Alcestis° from the grave, 
Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, 
Rescued from Death by force, though pale and 
faint. 

Mine, as whom washed from spot of childbed taint 5 
Purification ° in the Old Law did save. 
And such as yet once more I trust to have 
Full sight of her in Heaven without restraint. 

Came vested all in white, pure as her mind. 

Her face was veiled ;° yet to my fancied sight lo 
Love, sweetness, goodness, in her person shined 
So clear as in no face with more delight. 

But, oh ! as to embrace me she inclined, 

I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. 



NOTES 



At a Solemn Music 

Title. At a Solemn Music is synonymous with "At a 
Sacred Concert." 

2. Sphere-born. Milton invented the genealogy. Cf. 
Comus, 1. 241, where Echo is called " Daughter of the 
Sphere." Warton quotes Ben Jonson's amplification of 
the idea : — 

" What charming peals are these ? — 
They are the Marriage-Rites 
Of two the choicest pair of man's delights, 
Musick and Poesie : 
French air and English verse here wedded lie." 

6. concent. Harmony. 

7. sapphire-coloured throne. Cf. Ezekiel, i. 26 and 
Revelation, v. 2. 

18. noise. Music. 

19. disproportioned sin. Cf. Paradise Lost, XI. 11. 
55-57 : — 

" Sin that first 
Distempered all things, and of incorrupt 
Corrupted." 

89 



90 NOTES [Pages 2-3 



20. chime. Harmony. 

23. diapason. " The octave or interval which includes 
all the notes of the scale." — Masson. 

27. consort. Society. 



On Shakespeare 

On Shakespeare was published in 1632 in the Second 
Folio Edition of Shakespeare's works, with the title, An 
Epitaph on the Admirable Dramatick Poet, W. Shakespeare. 
It was probably first " written on the blank leaf of a copy 
of the Folio Shakespeare of 1623, the only edition of 
Shakespeare's collected plays then in existence. The 
wording of the lines might almost suggest that there was 
some talk in the year 1630, as there has been so often since, 
of erecting a great national monument to Shakespeare, 
distinct from his local monument, in Stratford Church, 
and that Milton thought the project superfluous. Very 
probably, however, Milton had been reading the obituary 
verses to Shakespeare by Ben Jonson and Leonard Digges, 
prefixed to the First Folio, and only amplified in his own 
lines an idea already expressed in both those pieces." ^ 

It is interesting to compare with Milton's poem the two 
referred to by Professor Masson. Ben Jonson's is in part 
as follows : — 

1 Masson's Life of Milton, Vol. I. p. 236. 



Page 3] ON SHAKESPEARE 91 



To the Memory of my Beloved Master, William Shakespeare 

" Soul of the age ! 
The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage ! 
My Shakespeare, rise ! I will not lodge thee by 
Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie 
A little further, to make thee a room : 
Thou art a monument without a tomb. 
And art alive still while thy book doth live 
And we have wits to read and praise to give." 

Digges has much the same idea : — 

" Shakespeare, at length thy pious fellows give 
The world thy Works ; thy Works, by which outlive 
Thy tomb thy name must : when that stone is rent 
And Time dissolves thy Stratford Monument, 
Here we alive shall view thee still. This Book 
When brass and marble fade, shall make thee look 
Fresh to all ages." 

4. star-ypointing. Pointing to the stars. Milton seems 
to have coined the word. The prefix y (German ge) belongs 
correctly to the past passive participle. 

8. livelong. The word is " lasting " in the Second 
Folio. — Masson. 

9. to the shame of slow-endeavouring art. The editors 
of the First Folio of Shakespeare say of him, "His mind 
and hand went together : and what he thought he uttered 
with that easiness that we have scarce received from him 



92 NOTES [Pages 3-4 

a blot on his papers." Milton himself worked slowly and 
repeatedly revised his first drafts. 

11. unvalued. Invaluable. 

12. Delphic. Oracular, inspired. A reference to the 
temple of Apollo at Delphi. 

14. Dost make us marble with too much conceiving. 

"'Dost turn us into marble by the over-effort of thought 
to which thou compellest us,' — a very exact description 
of Shakespeare's effect on his readers." — Masson. 
Shakespeare's readers are his monument. 

L'Allegro 
Title. U Allegro is Italian, meaning the cheerful man. 

1. Melancholy. Derived from the Greek for " black 
bile," which was supposed to cause excessive gloom. 
Here pensiveness, Milton invented the genealogy. "Was 
it not poetical enough to think of melancholy as the child 
of Night and the Hell-dog? " — Masson. 

2. Cerberus. Pluto's sleepless three-headed dog which 
guarded the entrance to Hades. 

3. Stygian. The Styx was one of the four rivers of 
Hades. The cave of Cerberus was on this river. 

5. uncouth. The literal meaning is " unknown " ; 
here " wild " or " lonely." 

6. jealous. Alluding to the watch that fowls keep when 
they are sitting. — Warburton. — his. As the antecedent 



Pages 4-5] L' ALLEGRO 93 

is Darkness, modern English would have its. Its had been 
coming into use since 1598, but in all Milton's poetry its 
occurs but three times. Masson's Life of Milton, Vol. VI. 
p. 641. 

7. night-raven. The raven was a bird of ill-omen. At- 
tention has repeatedly been called to the fact that it is not 
a night-bird ; but see Much Ado, II. iii. 84 : — 

" I had as lief have heard the night-raven, come what plague 
could have come after it." 

10. Cimmerian. In the Odyssey, XL 14, Homer de- 
scribes the Cimmerians as dwelling in " eternal cloud and 
darkness." 

12. yclept. Called. Past participle of Anglo-Saxon 
cleopian, to call. — Euphrosyne. The three Graces were 
Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia. The account of their 
parentage in lines 14 to 16 was given in the fourth century 
by Servius in his note on Virgil's Mneid, I. 720. 

14. Euphrosyne or Mirth is the daughter of the Goddess 
of Love and the God of Wine, or of the West Wind and the 
Dawn. Milton prefers the second. 

17. sager. More wisely, or an adjective with the noun 
omitted with the meaning of " poets with greater wis- 
dom." 

22. roses washed in dew. Cf. Taming of the Shrew, II, 
i. 174 : — 

*' Morning roses newly wash'd with dew." 



94 NOTES [Pages 5-6 

24. buxom. First meant " pliant," " yielding," and 
later, as here, " brisk," " lively," " cheerful." Now it 
means "plump and comely." — debonair. " Courteous," 
"of good appearance." From de bon aire. 

27. Quips. Sharp sajdngs. — Cranks. Odd or witty 
turns of expression. — wanton. Sportive, frolicsome. 

29. Hebe. The goddess who preceded Ganymede as 
cupbearer of the gods. 

33. trip it. It in this kind of construction is not much 
used in modern English except colloquially, but notice 
lord it, etc. 

34. fantastic. Denoting that the dance is improvised 
according to the fancy. 

39. To live with her. This passage is perfectly clear if 
to come in line 45 is regarded as coordinate with to live in 
line 39 and to hear in line 41. L' Allegro, awakened by the 
lark, comes to the window of his chamber and bids good- 
morrow to those on the outside. Then he views the scene 
in the farmyard. 

40. unreproved. Not deserving reproof ; innocent. 

44. dappled. Spotted. Cf. Much Ado, V. iii : — 

" The gentle day- 
Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray." 

45. in spite of sorrow. To spite sorrow. 



Pages 6-7] V ALLEGRO 95 

48. eglantine. Eglantine is a name for the sweetbrier, 
which is not twisted. Probably Milton refers here to the 
common English woodbine or honeysuckle. 

57. not unseen. " Happy men love witnesses of their 
joy." — HuRD, quoted by Masson and others. 

60. state. Stately advance or march. 

62. dight. Arrayed. 

67. tells his tale. Counts his sheep. But " under the 
hawthorn" suggests that the meaning of "story-telling" 
is possible. 

69. Straight. Immediately. Cf. Richard III, I. iii. 
355: — 

"About your business straight." 

And Longfellow, The Building of the Ship: — 

"Build me straight, O worthy Master ! 
Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel." 

70. landskip. Landscape, from Anglo-Saxon, land- 
scipe. The same suffix is used in friendship. 

71. lawns. Meadows or pastures. — fallows. Fallow 
has lost entirely its original meaning of "pale-colored." 
Fallow land is ploughed, but allowed to go one year with- 
out a crop. 

75. pied. Mottled with various colors. 

78. Bosomed. Enclosed. Cf. " enbosomed." 



96 NOTES [Pages 7-8 

80. cynosure. An object to which all eyes are turned. 
The word is Greek for " dog's tail." The last star in the 
tail of the Lesser Bear is the Pole Star by which Phoenician 
sailors guided their ships. Greek mariners steered by the 
Greater Bear, Cf. Comus, line 341 and note. 

83-88. Corydon, Thyrsis, Phillis, Thestylis are type 
names of shepherds and shepherdesses in pastoral poetry. 

91. secure. Untroubled; from, sine cura. 

92. upland. Inland, rural. 

94. rebecks. Lute-shaped musical instruments, resem- 
bling a violin, having from one to three strings. 

96. chequered shade. The sun shining through the 
leaves makes the ground beneath look like a checkerboard. 
Cf. Titus AndroJiicus, II. iii. 14-15 : — 

"The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind 
And make a chequer' d shadow on the ground." 

100. spicy. The spice is nutmeg, which is put in ale 
sweetened and warmed. 

102. Mab. Cf. Ben Jonson's The Satyr : — 

"This is Mab, the mistress Fairy, 
That doth nightly rob the dairy. 
She that pinches country wenches." 

Cf. also Romeo and Juliet, I. iv. 53-95, and the first pages 
of Shelley's Queen Mab. — junkets. Any sweetmeat, but 
originally cream cheese served on rushes, the Italian name 
of which is giunco. — eat. Preterit, but riming with feat. 



Pages 8-9] V ALLEGRO 97 

103. She. A shepherdess pinched for neglecting her 
work. Cf . Merry Wives of Windsor, V. v. 96-103. 

104. he. One of the shepherds. Friar's lantern. The 
ignis fatuus, called popularly Jack o' Lantern, Will-o'-the- 
Wisp, etc., the field spirit supposed to mislead people at 
night, — a light seen over marshy places, probably caused 
by the burning of a highly inflammable gas. 

105. Tells. He may be understood as the subject. 
This shepherd tells how the drudging goblin, Robin Good- 
fellow, toiled. Cf. Ben Jonson's Love Restored : "I am 
the honest plain country spirit, and harmless ; Robin Good- 
fellow, he that sweeps the hearth and the house clean, and 
riddles [passes the embers through a sieve] for the country 
maids, and does all their other drudgery." 

111. chimney. Fireplace. 

113. crop. Stomach. 

117. Towered cities. Some editors think that this and 
what follows describes the evening reading of U Allegro. 
But it may well represent experiences in the city. The 
poem deals with " a series of typical experiences." 

120. weeds. Clothing ; still used in widow's weeds. — 
triumphs. Shows, spectacles. Cf. Bacon's Of Masques 
and Triumphs. 

121. store of. Many. 

122. Rain influence. According to the astrologers, the 
stars influenced men for good or evil. Here the ladies' eyes 



98 NOTES [Pages 9-10 

are the stars. — judge the prize. In contests in the writing 
of poetry and in tournaments ladies awarded the prizes. 

124. her. The lady who presided at the contest. 

125. Hymen. The God of Marriage appears in many 
masques. 

126. saffron. The customary color of Hymen's robe. 
Cf. Ben Jonson's Hymenaei : — 

"On the other hand, entered Hymen in a saffron-colour' d robe." 

132. learned sock. Milton here draws the distinction 
which is often made between the learning of Ben Jonson, 
which was correct and profound, and the fancy-free spon- 
taneity of Shakespeare. — sock. A low-heeled shoe worn 
by actors in comedies. That, as some have thought, 
Milton here praises Shakespeare so faintly as to show 
lack of appreciation, seems far-fetched. Cf. the lines On 
Shakespeare (pp. 2-3). 

135-150. Note the music of the lines. 

136. Lydian airs. Lydian was the third of the three 
kinds or modes of ancient music. The Dorian was stately ; 
the Phrygian lively ; the Lydian soft and voluptuous. 

138. soul. Object of pierce. 

139. bout. A turn in music, a passage. 

145. Orpheus. Orpheus, the son of Apollo and the 
Muse Calliope, became, according to the myth, the most 
famous of musicians. When his wife Eurydice died by the 



Pages 10-11] V ALLEGRO 99 

bite of a serpent, he went to the Lower World to seek her. 
Playing his own accompaniment on the lyre, he sang before 
Pluto his petition for the restoration of his wife. Pluto 
granted his request on condition that he should not look 
back at his wife who was to follow him. But when he 
reached the verge of light, he looked back to make sure that 
she was following. She had to return to Hades. Because 
of his grief at the loss of his wife he treated with contempt 
the Thracian maidens, and by them was torn in pieces. 
Cf. Classical Dictionary. 

147. Elysian. Of Elysium, the abode of the shades of 
the Blessed. 

151-152. Mirth. Cf. Christopher Marlowe in The 

Passionate Shepherd to His Love : — ■ 

"If these delights thy mind may move, 
Then live with rae, and be my love." 

Read also The Nijmph's Reply, attributed by some to Sir 
Walter Raleigh. 

Il Penseroso 

Title. II Penseroso is good Italian of the seventeenth 
century, with the meaning of pensive or meditative. For a 
contrary, but wrong, opinion see Pattison's Life of Milton, 
p. 22. 

3. bested. The same word as bestead, assist, help. 

4. fixed . . . toys. The mind intent on things of high 
import, not on trifles. 



100 NOTES [Page 11 

6. fond. Derived from the past participle of Anglo- 
Saxon fonnen, to be foolish ; used here in the original mean- 
ing. — possess. Transitive with the object fancies. 

9. likest. An old superlative of like. The foolish 
fancies are most similar to dreams. 

10. pensioners. Retinue. Queen Elizabeth estab- 
lished a guard called pensioners. 

12. Melancholy. Pensiveness. 

14. hit. Meet, agree with. Cf. Antony and Cleopatra^ 
II. ii : — 

"From the barge 
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense 
Of the adjacent wharfs." 

And Pericles, III. ii : — 

"Dehcate odours as ever hit my nostril." 

18. Memnon. A king of the Ethiopians, who toward 
the end of the Trojan War fought for Priam, and was 
killed by Achilles ; he was noted for his beauty. Cf. 
Odijssey, XI. 552. On the beauty of Memnon's sister Mil- 
ton seems to be the only authority. 

19. starred Ethiop queen. Cassiopeia, wife of the 
Ethiopian king, Cepheus, boasted that she or, according 
to another version of the story, her daughter, Andromeda, 
was more beautiful than the sea-nymphs. Indignant, 
they sent a sea-monster to ravage the coast. Directed by 
an oracle, Cepheus exposed the daughter to be devoured 



Page 12] IL PENSEROSO 101 

by the monster ; and she was rescued by Perseus. After 
death Cassiopeia and her daughter became constellations. 
The sea-nymphs, however, had Cassiopeia placed near the 
pole where half the night she is held with her head down- 
ward. 

23. Vesta. The goddess of the hearth. Milton in- 
vented the genealogy. It is peculiarly in harmony with the 
rest of the poem to represent Melancholy as the child of 
the Goddess of the domestic hearth and Saturn, the intro- 
ducer of civilization. For the story of Saturn see the 
Classical Dictionary. Read also the first lines of Keats's 
Hyperion. 

29. Ida. A mountain in Crete where Jove overthrew 
Saturn. Cf. Paradise Lost, I. 515. 

33. grain. Originally meant " a small round particle " ; 
then " seed " as a grain of wheat ; finally specialized as 
the name of the coccus, an insect from which cochineal dye 
is made. Hence it means here color; "darkest grain" 
means dark purple. 

35. stole. Strictly a narrow band fringed at the ends 
and worn over both shoulders by priests, etc. Now loosely 
used of any ecclesiastical vestment, cypress lawn, 
" Black linen crepe or gauze, said to have first come from 
the island of Cyprus." — Masson. 

37. state. Stately dignity. 

39. commercing. Communing. 

40. rapt. Transported. 



102 NOTES [Pages 12-13 

42. Forget thyself to marble. Cf. On Shakespeare, 1. 
14 and note. 

43. sad. Serious. — leaden. The color peculiar to the 
star Saturn, betokening melancholy. — cast. Gaze. 

46. Spare Fast. Temperance in diet was a favorite 
doctrine of Milton's. 

51-54. Cherub contemplation. Cf. Ezekiel, x. To one 
of the cherubs of Ezekiel's vision Milton gives the name 
Contemplation. " It was by the serene faculty named 
Contemplation that one attained the clearest notion of 
divine things." — Masson. 

52. yon. Yonder. 

55. Hist may be considered an imperative ; and the lines 
may be read : " Keep silence unless the nightingale will 
sing." Some editors call hist the past participle with the 
meaning hushed, and construe silence as the object of bring 
in line 51. 

56. Philomel. Philomela, daughter of King Pandion 
of Attica, was turned into a nightingale because of her part 
in the murder of Itys. 

57. plight. Mood. 

59. Cynthia. Diana was born on Cyntheus, a moun- 
tain of Delos ; hence the name Cynthia. — checks. The 
Moon, entranced by the song of the nightingale, checks 
her team that she may listen. — dragon yoke. Keightley 
pointed out that in ancient mythology the car of Ceres, not 



Pages 13-14] IL PENSEROSO 103 

that of Diana, is drawn by dragons. As proof that Milton 
had authority for the idea see Midsummer Night's Dream, 
III. ii. 379 ; and Cymbeline, IL ii. 48. 

61. Sweet bird. As indications of Milton's liking for 
the nightingale, cf. Sonnet to the Nightingale; Camus, 234 
and 566 ; Paradise Lost, IV. 602, 771 ; VII. 435 ; Paradise 
Regained, IV. 245. — Masson. 

65. unseen. Cf. U Allegro, 57 and note. The pensive 
man loves solitude. 

73. plat. Plot. 

74. curfew. The curfew-bell, announcing the time for 
covering fires, usually eight or nine in the evening. 

75. some. " A distinct intimation, if such were at all 
necessary, that the whole visual circumstance is ideal, — 
that the Penseroso of the poem is not actually out walking 
in any particular locality, but is imagining himself, in rev- 
erie, here, there, and everywhere, at the bidding of his 
mood." — Masson. 

78. removed. Remote. 

83. bellman. Night watchman. — charm. From car- 
men, " song," originally with the idea of incantation. Cf. 
Herrick's The Bellman : — 

"From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, 
From murders benedicitie ; 
From all mischances that may fright 
Your pleasing slumbers in the night, 



104 NOTES [Pages 14-15 

Mercie secure ye all, and keep 
The goblin from ye while ye sleep. 
Past one aclock, and almost two ; 
My masters all, good day to you." 

87. outwatch the Bear. As the Bear never sets, this 
implies studying all night. 

88. thrice-great Hermes. The Greeks gave to the 
Egyptian philosopher Thot the name Hermes Trismegistus 
(thrice great), confusing him with Mercury. Most of the 
books attributed to him were written by the Neo-PIatonists 
of Alexandria in the fourth century a.d. 

88-89. unsphere . . . Plato. Bring back the spirit of 
Plato from the unseen world where it now is ; that is, study 
Plato's PhcBdo. Cf. Arcades, line 63 and note. 

91. forsook. Forsaken. 

93. And. After and supply tell. The figure is known as 
zeugma. 

94. fire, air, flood. Refers to the mediaeval belief that 
fire, air, water, and earth were the four elements composing 
the material universe. 

98. sceptred. Tragedy is concerned mostly with the 
misfortunes of kings. — pall. From Latin palla, a mantle. 
Worn by actors in classic tragedies. 

99. Thebes, etc. Here Milton alludes to the three 
chief themes of Greek tragedy. 



Page 15] IL PENSEROSO 105 

101-102. Some editors find here a reference to Shake- 
speare only ; the lines seem rather to indicate Milton's 
undervaluation of contemporary drama. 

102. buskined. The buskin was a high shoe or half- 
boot worn by the tragic actor. Cf. U Allegro, line 132 and 
note. 

104. Musaeus. A semi-mythical person represented as 
one of the earliest Greek poets. 

105. Orpheus. Cf. U Allegro, line 145 and note. 

109-115. him that left half-told. Chaucer, who left the 
Squire's Tale unfinished. 

1 10. Cambuscan. This, which seems to be a corrupted 
form of Genghis Khan, is accented by Chaucer on the last 
syllable. Cambuscan had by his wife, Elpheta, two sons, 
Algarsife and Camball, and a daughter, Canace. The King 
of Arabia and India sent to Cambuscan a steed of brass, 
which, directed by a pin in its ear, could travel any distance 
in twenty-four hours, and a sword which could cut through 
any armor and make a wound that could not be healed 
unless it were stroked by the back of the sword. Canace 
received a mirror in which she could read the future, and a 
ring by virtue of which she could understand the language 
of birds and the medicinal value of every plant. The tale 
ends when Canace has heard the story of a love-sick hawk. 
It is not known whose wife Canace became. The story 
was completed by Spenser in The Faerie Queene, IV. 2-3. 



106 NOTES [Pages 15-16 

113. virtuous. Possessing virtue or power. Cf. Mark, 
V. 30 : " And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that 
virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the 
press, and said, Who touched my clothes?" 

116-120. This applies closely to Spenser and The Faerie 
Queene; Milton may, however, have had in mind also 
Ariosto, Tasso, and Boiardo. 

122. civil-suited. Dressed in the clothing of a citizen. 

124. Attic boy. Cephalus, with whom, according to 
one story, Eos (Aurora) fell in love, and whom she carried 
away. According to another story, he rejected her ad- 
vances, but as a result of the affair killed by accident his 
wife who was watching him while he hunted. Cf . Classical 
Dictionary. 

128. his. In modern English its. 

130. minute-drops. The drops fall at intervals of a 
minute. 

134. brown. Dark. — Sylvan. The woodland god, 
Sylvanus, by some identified with Pan. 

135. monumental. Memorial. 

141. garish. Staring. 

145. consort. Possibly in the sense of " concert " ; or 
in that of " society." Cf. At a Solemn Music, line 27 and 
note. " Consort " was usual at the time in the sense of 
" partner." 



Pages 17-19] IL PENSEROSO 107 

147-150, These lines are obscure ; Professor Masson's 
paraphrase of them is as clear as any: "'Let some 
strange, mysterious dream wave {i.e. move to and fro) 
at his {i.e. Sleep's) wings, in airy stream,' etc." 

154. Genius. Guardian spirit. 

155. due. Proper. The cloister is the proper place for 
the meditative man to walk. Cf. Lycidas, 7, and Comus, 
12. 

156. studious cloister's pale. Milton was probably 
thinking of part of some college, roofed to keep out the 
rain, and having open pillared sides. 

158. massy-proof. The pillars are strong enough to 
support the massive roof. 

159. storied windows. Windows of stained glass, 
representing subjects from Scripture history. — dight. 
Adorned. 

170. spell. Find out the meaning of. 

Arcades 

4. mistook. The use of the past tense for the past 
participle is common in Elizabethan English. 

8. Fame, etc. An allusion to the compliments paid to 
the Countess of Derby by Spenser in his Teares of the Muses 
and in Colin Clouts Coyne Home Again. 

14. state. Stateliness, dignity. 



108 NOTES [Page 20 

20. Latona. Latona, also called Leto, and Jupiter were 
the parents of Apollo and Diana. 

21. towered Cybele. Cybele, called by the Greeks Rhea 
and Ops, was the wife of Saturn (Cronos), and the mother 
of Vesta, Ceres, Juno, Pluto, Neptune, and Jupiter. In 
works of art she wears a crown, from which towers rise 
on the forehead; hence "towered." 

23. Juno . . . odds. Juno could not give her any 
allowance as a handicap in a contest in beauty. Masson 
sees here an " implied compliment, that even the hand- 
somest of her daughters could hardly keep up with her." 

Stage Directions. Genius of the Wood. "It is a fair 
surmise that the Genius of the Wood was personated by 
Henry Lawes." — Masson. 

26. gentle. Though the actors are disguised, he per- 
ceives that they are of the nobility. 

28. Arcady. Arcadia, a mountainous part of Greece. 

30-31. Alpheus . . . Arethuse. The river Alpheus, 
which rises in Arcadia, during part of its course flows under- 
ground. This peculiarity gave rise to the myth of the 
river-god Alpheus and the nymph Arethusa. She, pur- 
sued by Alpheus, who had fallen in love with her, was 
changed by Diana into a fountain, called Arethusa, on the 
island of Ortygia, in the harbor of Syracuse. Alpheus, 
transformed into a river, followed her under the sea to 
Ortygia, and mingled there with the waters of the fountain. 
Cf . Lycidas, lines 85 and 132. 



Pages 21-22] ARCADES 109 

33. silver-buskined Nymphs. The ladies of the masque 
wore buskins. Cf. II Penseroso, 102. Nymphs is an allu- 
sion to Diana and her nymphs, whom Virgil represents as 
wearing buskins. 

34. quest. Inquiry, search. — free. Noble. 
46. curl. Dress with curls. 

51. Note the alHteration in lines 47, 50, and 51. — thwart- 
ing. Going crosswise or obliquely ; zigzag. 

52. cross dire-looking planet. Saturn. Cf. H Pen- 
seroso, 43 and note. 

53. worm. Any small creeping animal. 

57. tasselled. Decorated with tassels. 

60. puissant. Potent. — murmurs. Murmured bless- 
ings. Cf . Comus, 526 and note. 

63. celestial Sirens' harmony. According to the Ptole- 
maic astronomical system, which Milton used in his 
poetry, the earth was the fixed centre of the universe. 
Enclosing the earth at different distances were ten spheres. 
The tenth contained all the others, and protected them 
from Chaos. On each of the nine infolded spheres Milton 
seats a Siren. The nine Sirens sang in harmony, and keep- 
ing time to the music the three Fates, Lachesis, Clotho, and 
Atropos, turned the spindle of Necessity, "on which the 
fate of gods and men is wound." 

72-73. none can hear, etc. " So in Shakespeare's well- 



110 NOTES [Pages 23-24 

known speech of Lorenzo to Jessica on the same music of 
the spheres {Merchant of Venice, V. i) : — 

But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay 
Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it.'" 

— Masson. 
81. state. Chair of state, throne. 

97. Laden' s. Ladon was a river in Arcady. 

98. Lycaeus. A lofty mountain in Arcadia on which 
Zeus was worshipped. — Cylene. A mountain on the 
frontier of Arcadia. 

100. Erymanth. Erymanthus, a river in Arcadia ; here 
the god of the river. 

102. Maenalus. Another Arcadian mountain. Cf. 
Theocritus, Idyl I. : '" O Pan, Pan ! whether thou art on 
the high hills of Lycaeus, or rangest mighty Maenalus, haste 
hither to the Sicilian isle.' " — Lang's Translation. 

106. Syrinx. An Arcadian nymph, who, when pursued 
by Pan, was in answer to her prayer changed into a reed, 
of which Pan made his pipe. Cf. Ben Jonson's Satyr : — 

"And the dame hath Syrinx grace ! 
O that Pan were now in place — 
Sure they are of heavenly race." 

COMUS 

In none of the editions of the masque published during 
the life of Milton is it called Comus. It was first pub- 
lished in 1637 by Lawes with this title-page : — 



Pages 25-31] , COMUS 111 

" A Maske presented at Ludlow Castle 1634, on Michael- 
mas Night, before the Right Honourable John, Earl of 
Bridgewater, Viscount Brackley, Lord President of Wales, 
and one of His Majesties' Most Honourable Privy Coun- 
sell. '' Eheu quid volui misero mihi! floribus Austrum 
Perditus! ' 

"London; Printed for Humphrey Robinson, at the 
signe of the Three Pidgeons in Paul's Churchyard, 1637." 

The Latin motto Professor Masson has translated as 
follows : " Alas ! what have I chosen for my wretched self ; 
thus on my flowers, infatuated that I am, letting in the 
rude wind? " He thinks that it indicates the fears with 
which Milton consented to the publication of the masque. 
But they turned out to be groundless. Milton published 
it himself in 1645, and again in 1673, with titles similar 
to that in Lawes's edition. A briefer and more convenient 
title being necessary, the masque is now named after its 
principal character. 

Masques generally begin with a prologue which expounds 
the central idea and the occasion — a kind of prelim- 
inary exposition. This is supposed to have been the first 
literary part in the development of the masque. 

2. those. Has the idea of "well known." 

3. insphered. Cf. II Penseroso, line 88, and Arcades, 
63, and notes. 

4. serene. Where does the accent fall? 

7. pestered. Cumbered, clogged, as a horse hobbled 



112 NOTES [Pages 31-32 

in a pasture. — pinfold. An enclosure for stray animals, 
a pound. 

10. this mortal change. " This mortal state of life." — 
Masson. Is it not rather an echo of 1 Corinthians, xv. 
53? 

11. gods. Saints in heaven. 

12. due. Cf. II Penseroso, line 155 and note. 

13. golden key. Cf. Lycidas, line 111. 

16. ambrosial weeds. Heavenly garments. Ambro- 
sia was the food of the gods. Cf. U Allegro, line 120 and 
note. 

17. mould. Earth. 

18-20. When Jupiter and his brothers distributed by 
lot among themselves the government of the universe, 
Neptune obtained the sea ; Pluto (called the underground 
or Stygian Jupiter) the lower regions ; and Jupiter the 
heavens. Hence " high and nether Jove " means Jupiter 
and Pluto. 

23. unadorned. Equivalent to "otherwise unadorned." 

25. several. Each island to a separate government. 

27. this Isle. Great Britain. 

29. quarters. Divides among. — blue-haired. In 
masques blue is the usual color of the hair of sea-nymphs. 
Ben Jonson says of the six tritons in The Masque of Black- 
ness, " Their hairs were blue as partaking of the sea- 
colour." 



Pages 32-33] COMUS 113 

30. this tract. Wales. 

31. Peer. The Earl of Bridge water. — mickle. Much, 

33. old and haughty. A compliment to the Welsh. 
Note the compliments in Comus, — a masque character- 
istic. 

35. state. Ceremony of installation, or dignity and 
high station. 

37. perplexed. Entangled. 

38. horror. From the Latin horrere, to be rough, 
bristle. 

45. hall or bower. In the banqueting hall or in the 
lady's boudoir. 

48. After the Tuscan mariners transformed. A Latin 
construction, equivalent to " After the transformation of 
the Tuscan mariners." The Tyrrhenian pirates, whose 
ship Bacchus had hired, were planning to sell him as a 
slave. He changed the mast and oars into serpents and 
himself into a lion. The pirates, becoming mad with fright, 
leaped into the sea and were transformed into dolphins. 

49. Tyrrhene shore. The shore of the west central 
part of Italy. — listed. Pleased. Cf. St. John, iii. 8. 

50. Circe. Cf. Odyssey, X. 

56. a son. Milton invented this account of the paren- 
tage of Comus as well as that of his character. 

58. Comus. Derived from a Greek word for a " band 



114 NOTES [Pages 33-34 

of revellers," a " jovial troup." Personified as the god 
of festive mirth, Comus appears first in the later classical 
mythology. 

59. ripe. Mature. — frolic . . . age. Rejoicing in his 
strength. 

60. Celtic and Iberian fields. France and Spain. 

65. orient. Richly bright with a suggestion of mystery. 

66. drouth of Phoebus. Thirst due to Phoebus, the 
sun-god. 

67. fond. Foolish. Cf . II Penseroso, line 6 and note. 
69. resemblance. Cf. Genesis, i. 26-27. 

71. ounce. A kind of leopard. 

72-77. In Homer's account of Circe her victims re- 
tained their intellects unchanged. 

79. adventurous. Containing dangers that afford op- 
portunity for adventures. 

83. Iris' woof. Iris was goddess of the rainbow. The 
meaning may be that Comus' s clothing was the color of 
the rainbow. Cf. Paradise Lost, XL 244 : — 

"Iris had dipped the woof." 

87. knows to. A Latin construction equivalent to 
" knows how to." Cf. Lycidas, lines 10-11. 

88. less faith. " Not less trustworthy than he is skilful 
in music." — Masson. 



Pages 35-30] COMUS 115 

Stage Directions. Comus with his rabble (rout) forms 
a rudimentary antimasque. 

91. Aid of this occasion. Supposed to be a compliment 
to Henry Lawes, who acted the part. 

93-144. Lyrical passages abound in the masques that 
precede Comus. 

93. The star. Hesperus, the evening star, which tells 
the shepherd when to put his flock in the fold for the night. 
Cf . Measure for Measure, IV. ii. 248 : — 

"Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd." 

96-97. axle . . . stream. The ancients thought of 
the Atlantic as a stream flowing around the earth. The 
waters hissed when the setting sun sank into them. — steep. 
The sea seems to rise steeply from the shore. 

98. slope. Sloped, i.e. having passed below the horizon. 

99. dusky. Becoming dark. 
100-101. Cf. Psahns, xix. 5. 

105. rosy twine. Wreaths of roses. 

110. saws. Wise sayings, maxims. Cf.' As You Like 
It, II. vii. 156. 

112. starry quire. Quire is an old spelling of choir. 

113. spheres. This and starry inline 112 refer to the 
idea that the spheres composing the universe made music 
as they revolved. Cf. Arcades, line 63 and note. 

116. morrice. A Moorish dance. 



116 NOTES [Pages 3G-37 

118. pert. Sprightly (with none of the modern sense of 
** impertinence "). — dapper. Dainty, spruce. 

121. wakes. Night watches. 

129. Cotytto. A Thracian divinity, whose rites were 
celebrated at night in a licentious manner. 

131. called. Addressed in prayer, invoked. — dragon 
womb. Cf . II Penseroso, line 59 and note. 

132. spets. Spits. 

135. Hecate. The goddess of witchcraft. Cf. Macbeth, 
II. i. and Middleton's The Witch, III. iii. 

139. nice. " Foolishly particular about trifles." "Blab- 
bing " in the preceding line shows that "nice" is a sneer. — 
Indian. Eastern. 

140. cabined loop-hole. " The loop-hole of her cabin." 

144. fantastic. Cf. U Allegro, line 34 and note. — round. 
A kind of country dance. 

Stage Direction. The Measure denotes any dance 
with a clearly marked rhythm. 

145. Different pace. Note the change in metre. 

147. shrouds. Hiding-places. — brakes. Bushes, brush- 
wood. 

151. trains. Allurements, decoys. 

153-154. I hurl, etc. " Imagine the actor who per- 
sonated Comus flinging from his hand, or making a gesture 
of flinging, a magical powder, with the result, by some 



Pages 38-39] COMUS 117 

stage-device, of a flash of coloured light." — Masson. — 
spongy air. Air like a sponge to hold the spells. 

155. blear illusion. Illusions that blur or make dim. 

156. presentments. Representations. Cf. Hamlet, III. 
iv. 53-54 : — 

" Look here, upon this picture, and on this, 
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers." 

157. quaint. Odd. — habits. Cf. " riding habits." 
161. glozing. Deceiving. 

163. Wind me. Insinuate myself into his confidence. 

165. virtue. Cf. II Penseroso, line 113 and note. 

167. gear. Business. 

168. fairly. Quietly. Cf. Much Ado, V. iv. 72. 

174. loose. In manners or in morals. 

175. granges. Granaries. 

176. Pan. The great god of flocks and shepherds. 

178. swilled insolence. Insolence due to swilling, or 
drinking greedily. 

179. Wassailers. Revelers. Wassail is from ivaes 
hael, be hale, a phrase used in drinking bouts. Cf . Hamlet, 
I. iv. 9. 

189. sad. Sober, serious. — votarist. One who is de- 
voted or consecrated by a religious vow. — palmer. "Orig- 



118 NOTES [Pages 39-40 

inally one who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and 
brought back a poi?n-branch as a token." — Skeat. 

190. Phoebus' wain. The wagon of the sun-god. 

193. engaged. Entangled. 

195. stole. Cf. Arcades, line 4 and note. 

203. rife. Prevalent. — perfect. Perfectly distinct. 

204. single. Complete. 

210. well. In prose the adverb would precede the verb. 
212. strong siding. Taking sides vigorously. 

215. Chastity. The Biblical trio is Faith, Hope, and 
Charity. The central idea of Cofnus is the power of chas- 
tity. 

219. glistering. Glittering. Cf. Merchant of Venice, 
II. vii. 65. 

225. casts. Construe as coordinate with does in line 
223. 

230. Echo. Echo, having deceived Juno, was deprived 
of all speech except the ability to answer questions. Then 
Echo fell in love with Narcissus ; and, her love being unre- 
quited, she pined Siway until nothing remained of her but 
her voice. 

231. airy shell. The air. 

232. Meander. A river in Asia Minor, full of windings. 
• — margent. Margin. 



Pages 41-42] COMUS 119 

237. Narcissus. Fell in love with his own reflection in 
the water of a fountain. Without eating he stayed by 
the fountain till he died. His corpse was changed into the 
flower that bears his name. 

241. Parley. Conversation. — Daughter of the Sphere. 
Cf . At a Solemn Music, line 2. Some critics interpret the 
phrase to mean that Echo is the daughter of the music of 
the spheres ; others that the sphere of line 241 is the 
" airy shell " of 231. 

243. Give resounding grace. Increase the beauty of 
the harmonies by echoing them. 

247. vocal. Carrying the voice. 

248. his. The antecedent is " something holy." 

251. fall. Cadence, a sinking of tone or decrease of 
volume of sound. 

253. Sirens. Sea-nymphs who lived on an island near 
Sicily and by their songs lured sailors to destruction. 
Browne, in the Inner Temple Masque, written in 1614, brings 
them and Comus together. Cf. Homer's Odyssey, XII. 
67 ff. : — 

"They sit amidst a mead, 
And round about it runs a hedge or wall 
Of dead men's bones, their wither' d skins and all 
Hung all along upon it ; and these men 
Were such as they had fawn'd into their fen. 
And then their skins hung on their hedge of bones." 
— Chapman's Translation. 



120 NOTES [Pages 42-43 

254. flowery-kirtled. With clothing adorned with 
flowers. — Naiades. Nymphs of fresh water. 

257. Elysium. Cf. U Allegro, line 147 and note. — 
Scylla. A monster which lived in a cave and had a bark 
like a dog. (Cf. line 258.) Opposite Scylla lived Charybdis 
(Une 259). Cf. Odyssey, XII. 73 ff. Later the two were 
localized in the Gulf of Messina, Scylla as a rock on the 
Italian side, and Charybdis as a whirlpool on the Sicilian 
side. 

262. home-felt. Felt keenly. 

267. Unless. Supply " thou be." 

268. Pan. Cf. line 176. — Sylvan. Cf. II Penseroso, 
line 134 and note. 

271. ill is lost. A Latinism, seemingly a translation of 

male perditur. 

273. extreme shift. Last resource. 

279-290. These lines imitate in form the dialogue of 
Greek tragedy. 

285. forestalling. Coming sooner than they expected 
it. 

286. hit. Guess. 

287. Imports their loss. Does the loss of them mean 
much to you ? 

290. Hebe. The goddess of youth. Cf. U Allegro, 
line 29 and note. 



Pages 44-45] COMUS 121 

291. what time. When. Cf. Lycidas, line 28 and note. 
— laboured. Tired with work. 

293. swinked. Tired. From the Anglo-Saxon swincan, 
to labor. 

297. port. Bearing. 

299. element. Air or sky. 

301. plighted. Folded. From the Latin plicare; 
plight, " dangerous condition," is a Teutonic word. — awe- 
strook. Awe-struck. 

312. dingle. A narrow valley. — dell. A dell as dis- 
tinguished from a dingle is between lower hills. 

313. bosky bourn. Wooded stream. 

315. attendance. Attendants. 

316. shroud. Sheltered. Cf. line 147 and note. 

317. low-roosted. The lark builds its nest on the 
ground. 

318. thatched pallet. Thatch, the usual meaning of 
which is "cover," is probably used here of the lining of the 
nest. — pallet. Bed. — rouse. Rise. 

325. courts. Courtesy is derived from court. 

327. less warranted. The idea is iterated in " less 
secure." 

329. square. Proportion or adjust. 

332. benison. Blessing. 



122 NOTES [Pages 46-47 

334. disinherit. Dispossess. 

338. rush-candle. A candle the wick of which is the 
pith of a rush. — wicker hole. Window made of platted 
twigs. 

340. rule. The light streams straight as a line drawn 
with a rule. 

341. star of Arcady. Callisto, an Arcadian nymph, was 
changed into a bear and later placed by Jupiter in the 
heavens as the constellation of the Greater Bear. Her 
son Areas became the constellation of the Little Bear, in 
which is the polar star. 

342. Tyrian. The sailors of Tyre in Phoenicia sailed by 
the polar star. The Greeks sailed by the Greater Bear. 
■ — Cynosure. Cf. U Allegro, line 80 and note. 

344. wattled cotes. Sheepfolds made of interwoven 
twigs. Cf. Paradise Lost, IV. 185 ff. 

345. stops. Small holes in wind instruments such as 
the flute. 

349. innumerous. Innumerable. 

355. Leans. The subject is " head." 

356. If. After " if " supply " she be." 

358. hunger . . . heat. The hunger of savage beasts 
or the lust of savage men. 

359-360. over-exquisite . . . evils. Excessively care- 
ful or curious to foretell the form of evils. 



Pages 47-48] COMUS 123 

366. to seek. Unprepared. Cf. Paradise Lost, VIII. 
197: — 

"Unpractised, unprepared, and still to seek." 

367. unprincipled. Untrained, ignorant of the prin- 
ciples. 

372. plight. Condition. Cf. line 301. 

376. seeks to. Resorts to. 

380. to-ruffled. Entirely ruffled. To is an intensive 
particle with the idea of " in pieces," " asunder." 

382. centre. The centre of the earth. 

386. affects. Likes. 

390. weeds. Cf. U Allegro, line 120 and note. 

391. beads. Rosary. From Anglo-Saxon hede prayer. 
The name was transferred to little balls on which the 
prayers were counted. 

393. Hesperian tree. This tree bore the golden apples 
presented by Gaea to Hera at her marriage to Zeus. They 
were guarded by the daughters of Hesperus, aided by a 
dragon, Ladon. Hercules, as one of his labors, slew the 
dragon and got possession of the apples. Cf. lines 982- 
983. 

395. unenchanted. That cannot be enchanted. 

398. unsunned. Hidden from the light of the sun. 

401. wink on. Seem not to see, close the eyes to. 



124 NOTES [Pages 4i)-50 

404. it recks me not. I care not. 

407. unowned. Unprotected. 

408. infer. Argue. 

413. squint. Looking askance. 
419. if. Equivalent to " even if." 

423. trace, traverse. — unharboured. Without places 

of safety. 

426. bandite. Bandit. 

429. horrid. Cf. line 38 and note. 

430. unblenched. Not blanched or made white through 
fear. 

435. curfew. Cf. II Penseroso, line 74 and note. 
Ghosts were reputed to wander abroad from curfew to 
cock-crow. 

436. mine. " Mines were supposed to be inhabited by 
various sorts of spirits." — Warton. 

443. brinded. Brindled, streaked. 

447. Gorgon. The heads of the three Gorgons were 
covered with hissing serpents. Medusa, the only mortal 
one of the three, was killed by Perseus, and her head was 
placed in the centre of Minerva's shield. It still retained, 
however, the power of changing to stone whoever looked 
at it. 

455. lackey. Become servants to. 



Pages 51-53] COMUS 125 

459. oft converse. Frequent communion. 

463-475. Various editors following Warton note that 
these lines are a paraphrase of a passage in the Phcedo of 
Plato. 

468. Imbodies, and imbrutes. Incori^orates with itself 
the lusts of the flesh and becomes brutish. 

471. charnel. Sepulchral. 

473. it. The antecedent must be one of the shadows. 

474. sensualty. Sensuality. 

476-479. " A compliment to Plato who has just been 
quoted." — Masson. 

479. nectared. Nectar was the drink of the gods. 

491. iron stakes. Their swords. Cf. line 487. 

494. Thyrsis. Cf. L'AZZe^ro, line 83 and note. 
494-497. A compliment to Lawes, who acted the part. 

495. madrigal. A shepherd's song. 
495-512. Note the rimed couplets. 

501. next. Nearest. 

502. toy. Trifle. 

506. To. With the meaning " compared to." 

508. how chance. How does it happen? 

509. sadly. Seriously. 



126 NOTES [Pages 54-55 

515. sage poets. Some critics suppose that Milton 
referred to Homer and Virgil. 

517. Chimeras. Homer and Virgil sang of one particu- 
lar Chimera. The forepart of its body was that of a lion ; 
the middle that of a goat ; the hind part that of a dragon. 
It breathed fire. It was killed by Bellerophon mounted 
on the winged horse Pegasus. 

520. navel. Centre. 

526. murmurs. Murmured incantations. 

529. unmoulding. The participle modifies poison 
(line 524) and takes the object mintage. Destroying the 
form of reason stamped on the face. 

531. crofts. Small fields. Cf. Browning's A Gram- 
marian's Funeral: — 

"Sleep, flock and herd ! sleep, darkling thorpe and croft." 

532. brow. Overhang. 

534. stabled wolves. Wolves in their dens. 

535. Hecate. Cf. line 135. 

539. unweeting. Unknowing. 

540. then. The time that. 
542. besprent. Sprinkled. 

547. meditate. Practise. 

548. ere a close. Before the end of the song. 



Pages 56-58] COMUS 127 

552. unusual stop. An. allusion to line 145. 

553. drowsy-flighted. " Drowsily-flying." — Masson. 
" Drowsy flighted " is the reading of the Cambridge Ms. 
But the three earliest editions of Comus have " drowsie 
frighted " — the drowsy horses that had been frightened. 

555-562. A compliment to the singing of the lady in the 
Echo song. 

557-560. Silence . . . wished. If silence could always 
be replaced by such a sound, she would willingly cease to be. 

558. took. Charmed. 

565. Amazed. In the original sense of " astounded." 

568. lawns. Cf. L'AZZegrro, line 71 and note. 

573. prevent. Probably in its original sense of " antici- 
pate." 

585. period. Sentence. 

592. happy trial. Trial which ends happily. 

598. pillared firmament. An allusion to the ancient 
belief that the heavens were supported by pillars. Cf. 
Paradise Regained, IV. 455. 

602. for. As for. 

604. sooty flag. Cf. Phineas Fletcher's Locusts : — 

"All hell run out; and sooty flags display." — Masson. 

Acheron. A river in Hades. Meaning here the infernal 
regions. 



128 NOTES [Pages 58-59 

605. Harpies. Unclean creatures, birds with the heads 
of maidens. Cf. Virgil's Mneid, III. 225-228. — Hydras. 
Hercules killed the Hydra, which was a monster with nine 
heads. The plural is probably used here to include water 
serpents in general. 

607. purchase. Booty, prey. 

610. emprise. Archaic for " enterprise." 

611. stead. Service. 
614. bare. Mere. 

617. relation. Report. — shifts. Contrivances. 

619. shepherd lad. " Probably a reference to Milton's 
bosom friend, the half-Italian Diodati, practising as a 
physician when Comus was Avritten." — Masson. 

621. virtuous. Cf. line 16, and II Penseroso, 113 and 
note. 

626. scrip. Bag. 

627. simples. Medicinal herbs. Originally a single 
ingredient in a compounded medicine. 

635. clouted shoon. Mended shoes. 

636. Moly. Hermes gave it to Ulysses to protect him 
from the drugs and charms of Circe. Cf. Odyssey, X. 
281-306. 

638. Haemony. Milton invented the name. Hcemonia 
was an old name for Thessaly, which classical writers con- 
sidered the land of magic. 



Pages 60-Gl] COMUS 129 

639. sovran. Most efficacious. 

641. Furies. The avenging deities. 

646. lime-twigs. Twigs smeared with bird lime. 

655. smoke. The monster Cacus, a son of Vulcan, 
vomited smoke. Cf. ^neid, VIII. 252-253. 

Stage Direction, goes about. Tries. 

661. Daphne. When she was pursued by Apollo, she 
prayed for aid and was changed into a laurel tree. 

664. corporal rind. Body. 

672, julep. Derived from a Persian word for rose- 
water ; here a bright medicinal syrup. 

673. his. Its. 

675. Nepenthes. A pain-dispelling drug. Cf. Odysseij, 
IV. 219 ff. : "Then Helen, daughter of Zeus, . . . cast 
a drug into the wine whereof they drank, a drug to lull 
all pain and anger, and bring forgetfulness of every 
sorrow. Whoso should drink a draft thereof, when it is 
mingled in the bowl, on that day he would let no tear 
fall down his cheeks, not though his mother and his 
father died, not though men slew his brother or dear son 
with the sword before his face, and his own ej^es beheld 
it. Medicines of such virtue and so helpful had the 
daughter of Zeus, which Polydamna, the wife of Thon, 
had given her, a woman of Egypt." — Butcher and 
Lang's Translation. 



130 NOTES [Pages 62-63 

679. cruel to yourself. Cf. Shakespeare's Sonnet I. : — 

" Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel." 

685. unexempt condition. From one condition no 
mortal is exempt, i.e. " refreshment after toil." 

688. That. The antecedent is you in line 682. 

694. aspects. Countenances. 

695. oughly. So in Milton's text ; in many editions 
now printed ugly. 

698. vizored. Disguised by a mask. — forgery. De- 
ceit. 

700. liquorish. Dainty, enticing the appetite. 

707. budge. Fur, probably referring to that used as 
linings and edgings of academic gowns. — budge . . . fur. 
Teachers in the school of Stoicism. The Stoic philoso- 
phers like the Cynic were indifferent to pleasure and pain. 

708. Cynic tub. The tub of Diogenes. 

711. un withdrawing. Liberal. 

714. But all to. Except to. — curious. Dainty, critical 
(Verity) ; with the additional idea of " desiring new ex- 
periences." 

719. hutched. Shut up as in a box. 

721. pulse. Beans and pease. Cf. Daniel, i. 12: 
" Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days ; and let 
them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink." 



Pages 64-67] COMUS 131 

722. frieze. A coarse woollen cloth, originally from 
Friesland. 

728. Who. The antecedent is Nature's. 

737. coy. Shy without any idea of affectation. — 
cozened. Deceived, cheated. 

739-755. Beauty . . . yet. Warton quotes Midsum- 
vier Night's Dream, I. i. : — 

"Earthlier happy is the rose distilled 
Than that w ich, withering on the virgin thorn, 
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness." 

Cf. Shakespeare's Sonnets, especially IV. and VI., and also 
Herrick's Gather Ye Rosebuds. 

745. brag. Something to boast of. 

750. sorry grain. Poor color. Cf. II Penseroso, line 
33 and note. 

751. sampler. A piece of embroidery or other needle- 
work preserved to show the skill of the maker. — tease. 
Comb or card. 

760. bolt. To sift or separate the flour from the bran ; 
hence here " to make subtle." 
791. fence. Defence. 
801. set off. Made forcible. 

803. wrath of Jove. An allusion to Jove's war with the 
Titans. 



132 NOTES [Pages G7-68 

804. Erebus. The darkness of the lower world through 
which the Shades had to pass on their way to Hades. 

805. Saturn's crew. The Titans whom Jove over- 
threw. 

808. canon laws. Regulations. " Canon law " was 
a technical term for " ecclesiastical law." — foundation. 
An endowed institution such as a monastery or college. 
The line means " Against the regulations of our institution 
or company." 

809. lees. According to ancient physicians the four 
Cardinal Humours of the body were blood, choler, phlegm, 
and melancholy (black bile). These determined by their 
relative proportions in the body a person's physical and 
mental qualities. In 1594 Nash, in Terrors of the Night, 
said of melancholy, " It sinketh down to the bottom like 
the lees of the wine, corrupteth all the blood, and is the 
cause of lunacy." (Quoted by Todd.) 

816. rod reversed. The Attendant Spirit plans to undo 
the spell by reversing the rod and saying backwards the 
words of Comus. 

822. Melibceus. A name in pastoral poetry for any 
shepherd. Milton may here apply it to Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth or to Spenser. 

823. soothest. Truest. 

825. Severn. Ludlow Castle was near the Severn. 

826. Sabrina. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sackville, 
Drayton, Warner, and Spenser had told the story. Locrine 



Page G9] GOMUS 133 

was the son of Brutus, according to tradition the second 
founder of the British nation. After the death of Brutus, 
Locrine ruled what is now England. For seven years 
without his wife's knowledge he kept in his palace a beau- 
tiful German princess, Estrildis, and had by her a daughter, 
Sabrina. At last he divorced Gwendolen, his wife, and 
acknowledged Estrildis and her daughter. But Gwendolen, 
having raised an army, defeated and killed Locrine. She 
then ordered the destruction of Estrildis and Sabrina. 
There are, of course, discrepancies in the accounts. In 
Spenser's, Estrildis is slain and Sabrina is thrown into the 
Severn. 

835. Nereus. The father of the sea-nymphs. 

838. nectared. Nectar is poured into the vessels. Cf. 
line 479 and note. — lavers. Vessels to bathe in. — as- 
phodil. " A flower of the lily kind, the perfect mythical 
variety of which grew in the meadows of Heaven." 
— Masson. 

840. ambrosial. Cf. line 16 and note. 

845. helping. Curing. — urchin. At first meant 
'' hedgehog." It was commonly believed that evil spirits 
took the form of hedgehogs, and urchin assumed the mean- 
ing of " sprite " or " imp," as here. From " imp " comes 
the sense " small boy." 

852. old swain. The Melibceus of line 822. 

863. amber-dropping. The amber-colored water of the 
river was dropping from her hair. 



134 NOTES [Pages 70-71 

868. Oceanus. The god of the water which was sup- 
posed to surround the whole earth. 

869. Neptune. Cf. line 18 and note. 

870. Tethys. The wife of Oceanus. 

871. Nereus. Cf. line 835 and note. 

872. Carpathian wizard. Proteus, the old man of the 
sea, who is called a wizard because he could prophesy, and 
because he could assume any shape. — hook. A shepherd's 
hook, because he tended the flocks of seals of Neptune. 

873. Triton. The trumpeter of the marine deities, es- 
pecially of Neptune. 

874. Glaucus. A fisherman who, having eaten an herb 
planted by Saturn, became a sea-god. He yearly, it was 
believed, visited as a prophet all the islands and coasts of 
Greece. 

875. Leucothea. Ino, when pursued by her mad hus- 
band, Athamas, threw herself into the sea, carrying in her 
arms her son Melicertes. The gods made her a sea-god- 
dess with the name Leucothea, and her son a god with the 
name Palaemon. — lovely hands. Being the " white god- 
dess," Leucothea might well be supposed to have beautiful 
hands. 

877. Thetis. The daughter of Nereus and the mother 
of Achilles. " Silver-footed," Homer's epithet for Thetis, 
Milton translated as " tinsel-slippered." " Tinsel," from 
Latin scintilla, " spark," means here " sparkling," " flash- 



Pages 71-74] COMUS 135 

879. Parthenope. A Siren reputed to have been buried 
at Naples. 

880. Ligea. Another Siren. 

891. osier. A species of willow. — dank. Damp. 

893. azurn. Azure. Azurn is found nowhere else. 

894. turkis. Turquoise. 

895. channel strays. This line may mean that the 
sheen of the chariot is like the colors that glimmer in the 
water, or that the chariot strays in the channel. 

917. gums of glutinous heat. Gums made sticky by 
heat. 

921. Amphitrite's bower. Chamber of Amphi trite, 
the wife of Neptune. 

923. Anchises' line. According to legendary history, 
Anchises was father of ^neas, ^neas of Ascanius, As- 
canius of Silvius, Silvius of Brutus, and Brutus of Locrine. 
Cf. hne 827. 

929. tresses. The foliage on the banks of the river. 

934. lofty head. The source of the river in the Welsh 
mountains. 

934—935. crowned . . . round. Encircled with many 
a tower and terrace. 

936. upon. Groves upon the banks of the river adorn 
them. 

949. gratulate. Show joy in, welcome. 



136 NOTES [Pagks 74-75 

Stage Directions. Country Dancers. The second 
rudimentary antimasque. 

9G3. Mercury. He was the god of wrestling and other 
athletic games, of music, and, in fact, of everything that 
required skill and dexterity. Hence Milton credits him 
with devising the dance. 

964. Dryades. Wood-nymphs. Milton seems to be 
the first to associate Mercury with them. 

972. assays. Trials, tests. 

976-1011. When Comus was performed at Ludlow, these 
lines somewhat changed served as the opening speech ; 
and the epilogue began at line 1012. 

976-980. Cf . the song of Ariel, Tcmpeat, V. i. : — 

" Where the bee sucks, there suck I ; 
In the cowsHp's bell I lie ; 
There I couch when owls do cry. 
On the bat's back I do fly 
After summer merrily." 

982. Hesperus. Cf. line 393 and note. 

984. crisped. Curled. 

985. spruce. Gayly dressed. 

986. Graces. Cf. U Allegro, line 12 and note. — Hours. 
The goddesses who personified the seasons of the year; 
also called the Seasons. They kept the gate of clouds be- 
tween the earth and the summit of Olympus. 



Pages 7(3-77] COMUS 137 

990. cedarn. Cedar. 

991. Nard and cassia. Aromatic plants. 

992. Iris. Cf. line 83 and note. 

995. purfled. Edged with embroidery. 

996. Elysian. Cf. L' Allegro, line 147 and note. 

999. Adonis. The youth whom Venus loved and who 
was killed by a boar. 

1000. wound. Inflicted by the tusks of the boar. 

1002. Assyrian queen. Venus. She is called *' As- 
syrian " here " because her worship was of Eastern origin. 
She appears to have been originally identical with Astarte, 
called by the Hebrews Ashtoreth." — Classical Dictionary. 

1005. Psyche. The myth of Cupid and Psyche (the 
soul) first appeared in the second century a.d. Cupid fell 
in love with her, but she incurred the enmity of his mother 
Venus, who imposed on her impossible tasks, the wander- 
ing labors of line 1006. Aided by Cupid, she overcame 
the opposition of Venus, became immortal, and was united 
to him forever. 

1010-1011. Two blissful twins. This genealogy of 
Youth and Joy is Milton's invention. 

1015. bowed welkin. Arched sky. 

1021. sphery chime. Another allusion to the music 
of the spheres. Cf. Arcades, 63 and note. 

1022-1023. " On a certain day, nearly five years after 



138 NOTES [Page 78 

Comus was written (June 10, 1639), Milton, passing through 
Geneva, on his return to England from his Italian journey, 
was asked to write something in an album kept by the 
family of a certain Italian, Cerdogni, living there, in which 
already there were the signatures of many distinguished 
persons of the time. Complying, he wrote these last two 
lines of his Comus, adding the Latin verse, ' Coelum non 
animum muto dum trans mare curro,' and his signature, 
* Joannes Miltonius, Anglus.' It was as if he said, ' Wher- 
ever I go, the sentiment of the last two lines of my Comus 
is always my fixed belief.' " — Masson. 



Lycidas 

Title. The -name Lycidas occurs in the pastorals of 
Theocritus and Virgil. In Milton's poem it is used of 
Edward King. 

Sub-title. This was added to the poem when it was pub- 
lished in 1645, probably for two reasons : first, the general 
public needed to be told who King was and what circum- 
stances led to the writing of the poem ; secondly, the time 
was propitious for calling attention to the attack on the 
Church. — Monody. A mourning poem sung by a single 
mourner. — by occasion. Incidentally. 

1. Once more. Since 1634, when he completed Comus, 
Milton had written no poetry, but had been preparing 
himself for the writing of a great poem. 



Page 78] LYCIDAS 139 

1-2. Laurels, myrtles, and ivy were used to crown all 
poets — not merely pastoral poets, — never sere. Ever- 
green. 

2. brown. Dark, dusky. Cf. II Penseroso, line 134 
and note. 

3-5. berries . . . year. Milton felt that he was still 
unprepared to write. In his immaturity he was likely to 
scatter the leaves rather than win himself a crown. 

5. shatter. Scatter. 

6. dear. Used commonly in Elizabethan English of 
anything, whether pleasant or unpleasant, that comes 
home to one closely. 

7. compels. As the two subjects name only one idea, 
the singular verb is correct. 

9. peer. Equal. 

10-11. knew ... to. A Latinism, equivalent in mod- 
ern English to " knew how." King had written Latin 
verses. 

13. welter. Tumble about. — parching. King was 
drowned in August. 

14. meed. Recompense, tribute. — melodious tear. 

Elegy. 

15. Begin then. Cf. Theocritus, Idyl I. : — 

"Begin, ye Muses dear, begin the pastoral song." 

— Lang's Translation. 



140 NOTES [Pages 78-79 

Sisters . . . well. The Nine Muses were born in Pieria 
at the foot of Mt. Olympus, on which the gods lived. 
Hence the " well " may be the Pierian spring. But they 
also haunted the fountains of Aganippe and Hippocrene on 
Mt. Helicon, and the Castalian spring, on Mt. Parnassus. 

16. seat of Jove. Jove had an altar at Aganippe. Cf. 
II Penseroso, lines 47-48. 

18. coy. Bashful. 

19. Muse. Poet. 

19-22. Here Milton expresses the wish that after his 
death some poet will write memorial verses in his honor. 

20. lucky. Wishing me good fortune. 

21. he. The antecedent is Muse. 

23-36. " Here the language of the pastoral is used, as was 
the rule in all such poems, to veil and at the same time ex- 
press real facts. Milton and King had been fellow-students 
at Christ's College, Cambridge, visiting each other's rooms, 
taking walks together, performing academic exercises in 
common, exchanging literary confidences ; all which, trans- 
lated into the language of the pastoral, makes them fellow- 
shepherds, who had driven their flock a-field together in 
the morning, and fed it all day by the same shades and 
rills, not without mutual ditties on their oaten flutes, when 
sometimes other shepherds, or even Fauns and Satyrs, 
would be listening." — Masson. 

23. hill. Cambridge. 



Pages 79-80] LYCIDAS 141 

25. lawns. Cf. V Allegro, line 71 and note. 

27-28. heard . . . grey-fly. Heard the grey-fly when 
she, etc. The grey-fly is probably the trumpet-fly, which 
makes a humming noise at noon, the sultry time of day. 

29. Battening. Fattening. It is usually intransitive. 

30. star. Hesperus, the evening star. Critics have 
objected here on the ground that the evening star does not 
rise, but simply becomes visible in the gathering darkness. 

■It seems clear, however, that Milton had in mind the 
evening star, for in the original manuscript the line is " Oft 
till the even-star bright." 

34. Satyrs. In Greek mythology the frolicsome deities 
of the woods and flelds, half men, half goats. — Fauns. 
Roman deities similar to the Satyrs. 

36. Damoetus. A name used by the pastoral poets, 
Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser. It may refer to some 
officer of the University. 

40. gadding. Straggling. 

45. canker. Canker-worm, an insect that feeds on 
flowers, especially the rose. 

46. taint-worm. Some kind of poisonous parasite. 
Verity quotes from Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors 
(Book III, Chapter XVII, Section ii) : " There is found in 
the summer a kind of spider, called a tainct, of a red 
colour, and so little of body that ten of the largest will 
hardly outweigh a grain ; this by the country people is 



142 NOTES [Page 80 

accounted a deadly poison unto cows and horses ; who, 
if they suddenlie die, and swell thereon, ascribe their death 
thereto, and will commonly say, they have licked a 
tainct." 

46. weanling. Recently weaned. 

48. white-thorn. The hawthorn. Cf. V Allegro, line 
68. 

50-55. Cf. Theocritus, Idyl I, lines 66-69 : " Ye Muses 
. . . Where were ye when Daphnis was languishing ; ye 
Nymphs, where were ye ? By Peneus's beautiful dells, or 
by dells of Pindus ? for surely ye dwelt not by the great 
stream of the river Anapus, nor on the watch-tower of 
Etna, nor by the sacred water of Acis." — Lang's Trans- 
lation. 

Cf. also Virgil, Eclogue X. 9-12, and Spenser, Astrophel, 
stanza XXII. 

52. the steep. Some mountain on the Welsh coast 
near which King was drowned, possibly Kerig-y-Druidion, 
where there is supposed to be a burial-place of the Druids. 

53. Druids. The ministers of religion among the Celts 
of ancient Britain and Gaul. Milton calls them bards be- 
cause they were also the poets of the Celts. 

54. Mona. The Roman name for the island of Angle- 
sey, in the oak groves of which the Druids performed their 

rites. 

55. Deva. The Dee, which flows between England and 



Pages 80-81] LYCIDAS 143 

Wales into the Irish Sea. — wizard. The Dee was sup- 
posed to be haunted by wizards ; according to Spenser 
Merlin often visited it. Another legend is that by chang- 
ing its course it foretold either good or ill to England and 
Wales. 

56. fondly. Foolishly. Cf. II Penseroso, line 6 and 
note. 

58. Orpheus. Cf. L'^ZZe^^^o, 145 and note. 

59. Muse. Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, was the 
mother of Orpheus. — enchanting. Orpheus worked by 
the enchantment of music. 

61. rout. The unruly band of Thracian women who 
tore Orpheus in pieces and threw his head into the Hebrus. 
Cf. Paradise Lost, VII. 33-35 : — 

"The race 
Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard 
In Rhodope." 

64-84. Note the long digression in which Milton tries 
to decide whether after all the incessant care of the poet 
is worth while. 

64. what boots it. What advantage is it ? — unces- 
sant. Incessant. 

65. shepherd's trade. The writing of poetry. 

66. meditate . . . Muse. Compose. — thankless. Not 
rewarded by thanks, profitless. 



144 NOTES [Page 81 

67. use. Are in the habit of doing. 

67-69. others . . . hair. These lines seem to contrast 
a life of ease and pleasure with the laborious life of the poet 
described in lines 64-66. Some critics, however, think 
them a contemptuous reference to the love poetry of the 
Cavalier lyrists, Carew, Herrick, etc. 

68-69. Amaryllis and Neaera are names of shepherdesses 
in pastoral poetry. 

70. clear. Noble, pure. 

71. Last infirmity. The last infirmity to be abandoned. 
That. That well known. Cf. ille. 

73. guerdon. Reward. 

75. blind Fury. Probably Atropos, one of the three 
Fates. Clotho spun the thread of life ; Lachesis decided 
the length of each life ; and Atropos cut the thread. In 
classical mythology the Fates and Furies are distinct. The 
idea seems to be that only a Fury could be so insane as to 
cut King's thread of life. 

77. Phoebus. An epithet of Apollo, the Greek god of 
poetry. — touched my trembling ears. Professor Masson 
thinks that this is an allusion to " the popular superstition 
that the tingling of a person's ears is a sign that people are 
talking about him. What Milton had been saying about 
poetic fame might be understood, he was, as applicable to 
himself." But in Virgil's Eclogue VII, touching the ear 
is a method of recalling a subject to one's memory. " When 



Pages 81-82] LYCIDAS 145 

I was venturing to sing of kings and battles, the Cynthian 
god touched my ear and appealed to my memory." Mil- 
ton may mean to say that Apollo called his attention to 
something he had forgotten about fame. 

79. glistering foil. Glistening metal leaf, hence a dis- 
play. 

79-82. Fame does not depend on a display of accom- 
plishments or on being the talk of the town. It consists 
rather in the approbation of God ; to attain fame one must 
live ever in his " great Task-Master's eye." 

82. Jove. God. Used here because all the other names 
in the passage are classical. 

85-86. Cf . Arcades, line 30 and note. 

After the digression on fame the poet returns to the 
pastoral proper. He announces the return by calling on 
Arethusa as representing the pastoral poets of Sicily — 
Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus — and on the Mincius, a 
river in Italy near which Virgil was born, as representing 
Latin pastoral poems. 

87. strain. The words of Apollo in lines 76-84. — 
mood. Style or tone of music. 

89-90. Herald . . . plea. Triton " comes in behalf of 
Neptune to inquire what had caused the drowning of 
Lycidas." — Masson. Or he may have come to defend 
Neptune against the charge of having drowned him. 
Cf. Comus, line 873 and note. 



146 NOTES [Page 82 

91. felon. Because they are assumed to have caused 
the death of Lycidas. 

93. rugged. Rough, ragged. 

96. Hippotades ^olus the son of Hippotes. Zeus 
appointed him god of the winds, which he kept enclosed 
in a mountain. 

99. Panope. One of the fifty daughters of Nereus. Cf. 
Comus, line 835 and note. 

101. eclipse. Eclipses were proverbially omens of dis- 
aster. Cf. Paradise Lost, I. 596-599; and Macbeth, IV. 

i.28. 

103. Camus. The guardian spirit of the river Cam and 
of Cambridge University. 

104. hairy. The allusion is to the river weeds floating 
on the water. 

104. sedge. A coarse grass which grows on the banks 
of streams, a traditional adornment of river-deities. 

105. Inwrought. In his first draft Milton wrote 
" scrawled o'er." 

105. figures dim. The indistinct markings on the dried 
sedge, or devices symbolizing the history of the University. 

106. sanguine flower. Apollo killed by accident a 
Spartan prince named Hyacinthus, from whose blood grew 
a flower on the leaves of which the exclamation of woe, 
Ai, Ai, alas, alas ! seemed to be represented. 



Page 83] LYCIDAS 147 

107. pledge. Child. 

109. The Pilot of the Galilean Lake. St. Peter, who 
is introduced here as the founder of the Church. King 
had intended to become a clergyman. 

110. Keys. Cf. Matthew, xvi. 19 : — 

"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 

111. golden . . . iron. A tradition had gained vogue 
in the Church that Peter bore two keys. Milton invented 
the idea that one key is of gold, the other of iron, and 
that one opens, the other shuts. — amain. With force. 

112. mitred. Furnished with a mitre, the head-dress 
of a bishop. — bespake. Spoke. 

113. spared. Through the mouth of St. Peter, Milton 
denounces the corrupt clergy. 

114. Enow. Enough. 

115. Creep, and intrude, and climb. " First those who 
' creep ' into the fold, who do not care for office, nor name, 
but for secret influence, and do all things occultly and cun- 
ningly, consenting to any servility of office or conduct, so 
only that they may intimately discern, and unawares direct, 
the minds of men. Then those who ' intrude ' (thrust, 
that is) themselves into the fold, who, by natural insolence 
of heart, and stout eloquence of tongue, fearlessly perse- 
verant self-assertion, obtain hearing and authority with the 
common crowd. Lastly, those who ' climb,' who, by labor 
and learning both stout and sound, but selfishly asserted 



148 NOTES [Page 83 

in the cause of their own ambition, gain high dignities and 
authorities, and become ' lords over the heritage,' though 
not 'ensamples to the flock.'" — Ruskin's Sesame and 
Lilies, section 21. 

118, worthy . . . guest. CL Matthew, xxii. 8. 

119. Blind mouths. " Those two monosyllables ex- 
press the precisely accurate contraries of right character 
in the two great offices of the Church, — those of the bishop 
and pastor. A ' bishop ' means ' a person who sees.' A 
* pastor ' means ' a person who feeds.' The most un- 
bishoply character a man can have is, therefore, to be blind. 
The most unpastoral is, instead of feeding, to want to be 
fed, — to be a mouth. Take the two reverses together, 
and you have 'blind mouths.'!' — Sesame and Lilies, sec- 
tion 22. 

" Our clergy are rather to be called Sheep than Shep- 
herds ; they are fed rather than the pastors ; all, in general, 
is fat about them, even the intellects not excepted." — 
Milton's Defensio Secunda, Masson's Translation. 

121. berdman. The terms peculiar to a shepherd's 
occupation are very appropriate throughout this passage 
because we are accustomed to think of clergymen as shep- 
herds. 

122. What recks it them. What care is it of theirs? — 
sped. Provided for. 

123. list. Please. — songs. Sermons. 

124. scrannel. Thin, lean, slight. 



Pages 85-84] LYCIDAS 149 

126. rank. Noxious, pestilential. — draw. Breathe in. 
The unworthy pastors taught false doctrine, or what seemed 
false to a Puritan like Milton. 

128. grim wolf. The Church of Rome. — privy paw. 
In 1636 and 1637 English Protestants were much alarmed 
over the secret proselytizing carried on by the Roman 
Catholic party. Cf. Masson's Life of Milton, Vol. I., pp. 
685-686. 

130. two-handed engine. An engine was something 
cunningly or ingeniously devised ; hence, any instrument. 
Explanations of the reference are numerous. Professor 
Masson says that Milton was thinking of the two houses 
of Parliament ; other critics mention the two-edged sword 
of Revelation, i. 16, the axe laid unto the root of the tree of 
Matthew, iii. 10, and Luke, iii. 9, and the Sword of Justice. 
John Richard Green in his History of the English People, 
Vol. III., p. 184, calls it a " threat of the axe." Milton 
evidently believed that an efficient instrument of reform 
was at hand. 

132. Alpheus. Cf. Arcades, lines 30-31 and note. By 
calling on Alpheus Milton announces his return to pastoral 
poetry proper after his second long digression. After the 
first digression he invoked Arethusa, now her lover. — 
dread voice. That of St. Peter. 

133. shrunk thy streams. Interrupted the pastoral 
verse. — Sicilian Muse. Cf . Arcades, line 30, and Lycidas, 
line 85 and notes. 



150 NOTES [Page 84 

136. use. Dwell, stay. 

138. swart star. The Dog-star, Sirius, which during 
July and August rises at the same time as the sun. Hence 
seems to have arisen the belief that this star is responsible 
for the hot weather of those months, and makes people 
swart, dark. Cf. dog-days, sparely. Seldom. 

139. quaint. Pretty or fanciful. — enamelled. Glossy 
and marked by different colors. — eyes. Flowers. 

141. purple. An imperative coordinate with throWy 
line 139. 

142-150. Cf. Winter's Tale, IV. iv. 116-127. 

142. rathe. Early. — forsaken. Milton wrote first 
" unwedded," and some critics thus interpret " forsaken." 
But the change in the wording seems intended to change the 
meaning to " left alone." 

143. crow-toe. The crow-foot. 

149. amaranthus. This word comes from the Greek for 
." never-fading." 

151. laureate hearse. " Hearse," derived from Latin 
hirpex, a harrow, has been used as a name of almost every- 
thing connected with a funeral. Here it probably means 
the wooden support on which the coffin rests. To this 
support copies of memorial verses were often fastened. 
" Laureate " alludes to Lycidas, and the other poems 
written in memory of Edward King. 

153. dally with false surmise. Fancy that the body of 



Page 85] LYCIDAS 151 

Lycidas is covered with flowers and elegies when it is really 
tossed about in the ocean. 

156. Hebrides. Islands west of Scotland. 

158. monstrous. Of monsters. 

159. moist. Tearful. 

160. by the fable of Bellerus old. Land's End, the 
southwestern extremity of England, the abode of the 
fabled Bellerus. 

161. great Vision. A vision of St. Michael, the Arch- 
angel. — guarded mount. St. Michael's Mount in Corn- 
wall, on a crag of which the Archangel was said sometimes 
to appear and which he therefore " guarded." 

162. Namancos and Bayona's hold. Places in Spain 
toward which, according to the fable, St. Michael looked. 

163. " In making the Archangel Michael, the guardian 
and defender of the Church of Christ, look toward Naman- 
cos and Bayona's hold, i.e. toward Spain, the great strong- 
hold, at the time, of Papacy, and which, in the reign of 
Elizabeth, had threatened England with invasion and with 
the imposition of the Roman Catholic religion, the poet 
would evidently imply the Archbishop's watchfulness 
over the church against foreign foes. But the danger is 
not from without (this I take to be the idea shadowed 
forth), the danger is not from without — it lies within 
the Church. Milton, or rather ' Milton transformed in 
his imagination, for the time, into a poetic shepherd,' 
therefore says : ' Look homeward. Angel, now, and melt 



152 NOTES [Page 86 

with ruth.' " — Corson's Introduction to the Works of John 
Milton, pp. 172-173. — ruth. Pity. 

164. dolphins. Arion, a celebrated player on the lyre, 
carrying with him great wealth, embarked on a ship sailing 
to Corinth. When he found that the sailors were planning 
to murder him for his wealth, he asked permission to play 
once more on his lyre. Having played, he threw himself 
into the sea. His music had attracted to the ship many 
dolphins on the back of one of which he reached Corinth 
in safety. 

168. day-star. The sun. 

170. tricks. Dresses anew, makes trim. — ore. Bright- 
colored metal. ." Ore " often means " gold " in Eliza- 
bethan writers, probably because it was confused with 
aurum, which is similar in sound. 

173. Him. Cf. Matthew, xiv. 25-31. 

175. nectar. Cf. Comus, line 479 and note. — oozy. 
Wet with sea-water. 

176. unexpressive. Inexpressible. ^- nuptial. Cf. Rev- 
elation, xix. 7-9. 

183. Genius. Guardian spirit. In this passage, as in 
others in Lycidas, Milton blends Pagan and Christian 
beliefs. 

186-193. The lament closes with line 185. In the clos- 
ing stanza Milton speaks of himself. 

186. uncouth, The original meaning is "unknown"; 



Page 87] LYCIDAS 153 

and that may be the meaning here, as in 1637 Milton was 
an unknown writer. 

188. stops. Cf. Comus, line 345 and note. — quills. 
Reeds. 

189. Doric. Theocritus and the other Sicilian pastoral 
poets used the Doric dialect. 

190. stretched hills. The setting of the sun had caused 
their shadows to lengthen. 

192. twitched. Gathered tightly around him. 

193. woods. This line is often misquoted. 

On his Blindness (written in 1655) 

2. Ere half my days. Milton's blindness became com- 
plete in 1652, while he was writing the Second Defense of 
the English People. He was thus forty-four years old. 

3. talent. Cf. Matthew, xxv. 14-30. 
8. fondly. Foolishly. 

12. thousands. That is, of heavenly messengers. 

On his Deceased Wife (written probably in 1658) 

In November, 1656, four years after the death of his first 
wife, Milton married Katherine Woodcock. In the follow- 
ing October a daughter was born to them. Four months 
later Mrs. Milton died, and one month after her death 



154 NOTES [Page 88 

occurred that of the child. In the words of Professor Mas- 
son, " She had been to him, during the short fifteen months 
of their union, all that he had thought saintlike and 
womanly, very sympathetic with himself, and maintaining 
such peace and order in his household as had not been there 
till she entered it." 

1. Methought. It seemed to me. — saw. It is prob- 
able that Milton never saw his second wife. 

2. Alcestis. When, Admetus, King of Thessaly, was 
mortally sick, Apollo obtained from the Fates a promise to 
spare him if any one could be found to die in his place. His 
wife, Alcestis, consented, and was rescued from death by 
Hercules. The story is told in the Alcestis of Euripides. 
Cf. Browning's Balaustion. 

6. Purification. Cf. Leviticus, xii. 

10. Her face was veiled. The face of Alcestis was 
veiled when she returned to Admetus. 



INDEX 



Acheron, 127. 
Adonis, 137. 
adventurous, 114. 
affects, 123. 

after the Tuscan mariners trans- 
formed, 113. 
Aid of this occasion, 115. 
air, 104. 
airy shell, 118. 
Alcestis, 154. 
Alpheus, 149. 

Alpheus . . . Arethuse, 108. 
amain, 147. 
amaranthus, 150. 
Amaryllis, 144. 
Amazed, 127. 
amber-dropping, 133. 
ambrosial, 133. 
ambrosial weeds, 112. 
Amphitrite's bower, 135. 
Anchises' line, 135. 
and, 104. 
Arcady, 108. 
Arethusa, 145. 
a son, 113. 
aspects, 130. 
asphodil, 133. 
assays, 136. 
Assyrian queen, 137. 



attendance, 121. 
Attic boy, 106. 
awe-strook, 121. 
axle . . . stream, 115. 
azurn, 135. 

bandite, 124. 

bare, 128. 

Battening, 141. 

beads, 123. 

Beauty . . . yet, 131. 

Begin then, 139. 

bellman, 103. 

benison, 121. 

bespake, 147. 

besprent, 126. 

berries . . . year, 139. 

bespake, 147. 

bested, 99. 

blear illusion, 117. 

blind Fury, 144. 

blind mouths, 148. 

blue-haired, 112. 

bolt, 131. 

bosky bourn, 121. 

Bosomed, 95. 

bout, 98. 

bowed welkin, 137. 

brag, 131. 



155 



156 



INDEX 



brakes, 116. 

brinded, 124. 

brow, 126. 

brown, 106, 139. 

budge, 130. 

buskined, 105. 

But all to, 130. 

buxom, 94. 

by occasion, 138. 

by the fable of Bellerus old, 151. 

cabined loop-hole, 116. 

called, 116. 

Cambuscan, 105. 

Camus, 146. 

Canace, 105. 

canker, 141. 

canon laws, 132. 

Carpathian wizard, 134. 

cast, 102. 

casts, 118. 

cedarn, 137. 

celestial Sirens' harmony, 109. 

Celtic and Iberian fields, 114. 

centre, 123. 

Cerberus, 92. 

channel strays, 135. 

charm, 103. 

charnel, 125. 

Charybdis, 120. 

Chastity, 118. 

checks, 102. 

chequered shade, 96. 

Cherub contemplation, 102. 

chimney, 97. 

Chimeras, 126. 



chime, 90. 

Cimmerian, 93. 

Circe, 113. 

civil-suited, 106. 

clear, 144. 

clouted shoon, 128. 

Commercing, 101. 

compels, 139. 

Comus, 110, 113. 

concent, 89. 

consort, 90, 106. 

corporal rind, 129. 

Corydon, 96. 

Cotytto, 116. 

Country Dancers, 136. 

courts, 121. 

coy, 131, 140. 

cozened, 131. 

Cranks, 94. 

Creep, and intrude, and climb, 

147. 
crisped, 136. 
crofts, 126. 
crop, 97. 

cross dire-looking planet, 109. 
crowned . . . round, 135. 
crow-toe, 150. 
cruel to yourself, 130. 
curfew, 103, 124. 
curious, 130. 
curl, 109. 
Cylene, 110. 
Cynic tub, 130. 
cynosure, 96, 122. 
Cynthia, 102. 
Cypress lawn, 101. 



INDEX 



157 



dally with false surmise, 150. 

Damoetus, 141. 

dank, 135. 

Daphne, 129. 

dapper, 116. 

dappled, 94. 

Daughter of the Sphere, 119. 

day-star, 152. 

dear, 139. 

debonair, 94. 

dell, 121. 

Delphic, 92. 

Deva, 142. 

diapason, 90. 

Different pace, 116. 

dight, 95, 107. 

dingle, 121. 

disinherit, 122. 

disproportioned sin, 89. 

dolphins, 152. . 

Doric, 153. 

Dost make us marble, 92. 

dragon womb, 116. 

dragon yoke, 102. 

draw, 149. 

dread voice, 149. 

drouth of Phoebus, 114, 

drowsy-flighted, 127. 

Druids, 142. 

Dryades, 136. 

due, 107, 112. 

dusky, 115. 

eat, 96. 
Echo, 118. 
eclipse, 146. 



eglantine, 95. 
element, 121. 
Elysian, 99, 137. 
Elysium, 120. 
emprise, 128. 
enamelled, 150. 
enchanting, 143. 
engaged, 118. 
enow, 147. 
ere a close, 126. 
Erebus, 132. 
Ere half my days, 153. 
Erymanth, 110. 
Euphrosyne, 93. 
extreme shift, 120. 
eyes, 150. 

fairly, 117. 

fall, 119. 

fallows, 95. 

Fame, 107. 

fantastic, 94, 116. 

Fauns, 141. 

felon, 146. 

fence, 131. 

figures dim, 146. 

Fire, 104. 

fixed . . . toys, 99. 

flood, 104. 

flowery-kirtled, 120. 

fond, 100, 114. 

fondly, 143, 153. 

for, 127. 

forestalling, 120. 

forgery, 130. 

Forget thyself to marble, 102. 



158 



INDEX 



forsaken, 150. 
forsook, 104. 
foundation, 132. 
Friar's lantern, 97. 
frieze, 131. 
frolic . . . age, 114. 
Furies, 129. 

gadding, 141. 

garish, 106. 

gear, 117. 

Genius, 107, 152. 

Genius of the Wood, 108. 

gentle, 108. 

Give resounding grace, 119. 

Glaucus, 134. 

glistering, 118, 145. 

glistering foil, 145. 

glozing, 117. 

gods, 112. 

goes about, 129. 

golden . . . iron, 147. 

golden key, 112, 

Gorgon, 124. 

Graces, 136. 

grain, 101. 

granges, 117. 

gratulate, 135. 

great Vision, 151. 

grim wolf, 149. 

guarded mount, 151. 

guerdon, 144. 

gums of glutinous heat, 135. 

habits, 117. 
Haemony, 128. 
hairy, 146. 



hall or bower, 113. 

happy trial, 127. 

Harpies, 128. 

he, 97, 140. 

heard ... fly, 141. 

Hebe, 94, 120. 

Hebrides, 151. 

Hecate, 116, 126. 

helping, 133. 

her, 98. 

Herald . . . plea, 145. 

herdman, 148. 

Her face was veiled, 154. 

Hesperian tree, 123. 

Hesperus, 136. 

high and nether Jove, 112. 

hill, 140. 

Him, 152. 

him that left half-told, 105. 

Hippotades, 140. 

his, 106, 119, 129. 

Hist, 102. 

hit, 100, 120. 

home-felt, 120. 

hook, 134. 

horrid, 124. 

horror, 113. 

Hours, 136. 

how chance, 125. 

hunger . . . heat, 122. 

hutched, 130. 

Hydras, 128. 

Hymen, 98. 

Ida, 101. 
If. 122, 124. 



INDEX 



159 



147-150, 107. 



I hurl, 116. 

II Penseroso, 11 
ill is lost, 120. 

Imbodies and imbrutes, 125. 

Imports their loss, 120. 

Indian, 116. 

infer, 124. 

innumerous, 122. 

insphered, 111. 

in spite of sorrow, 94. 

Inwrought, 146. 

Iris, 137. 

Iris' woof, 114. 

iron stakes, 125. 

it, 125. 

it recks me not, 124. 

ivy, 139. 

jealous, 92. 

Jove, 145. 

judge the prize, 97. 

julep, 129. 

junkets, 96. 

Juno . . . odds, 108. 

Keys, 147. 

knew . . . to, 139. 

knows to, 114. 

laboured, 121. 
laekay, 124. 
Ladon's, 110. 
U Allegro, 92. 
landskip, 95. 
Last infirmity, 144. 
Latona, lOS. 
laureate hearse, 150. 



Laurels, 139. 
lavers, 133. 
lawns, 95, 127, 141. 
leaden, 102. 
Leans, 122. 
Learned sock, 98. 
lees, 132. 
less faith, 114. 
less warranted, 121. 
Leucothea, 134. 
Ligea, 135. 
likest, 100. 
lime-twigs, 129. 
liquorish, 130. 
list, 148. 
listed, 113. 
livelong, 91. 
lofty head, 135. 
loose, 117. 
lovely hands, 134. 
low-roosted, 121. 
lucky, 140. 
Lycseus, 110. 
Lycidas, 138. 
Lydian airs, 98. 

Mab, 96. 
madrigal, 125. 
Msenalus, 110. 
make us marble, 92. 
margent, 118. 
massy-proof, 107. 
Meander, 118. 
meditate, 126. 
meditate . . . Muse, 143. 
meed, 139. 



160 



INDEX 



Melancholy, 92, 100. 
Meliboeus, 132. 
melodious tear, 139. 
Mcmnon, 100. 
Mercury, 13G. 
Methought, 154. 
mickle, 113. 
Mini?ius, 145. 
mine, 124. 
minute-drops, 106. 
Mirth, 99. 
mistook, 107. 
mitred, 147. 
moist, 151. 
Moly, 128. 
Mona, 142. 
Monody, 138. 
monstrous, 151. 
monumental, lOG. 
mood, 145. 
morrice, ll5. 
mould, 112. 
murmurs, 109, 126. 
Musoeus, 105. 
Muse, 140, 143. 
myrtles, 139. 

Naiades, 120. 
Namancos and Bayona' 

151. 
Narcissus, 119. 
Nard and cassia, 137. 
navel, 126. 
Nesera, 144. 
nectar, 152. 
nectared, 125, 133. 



hold, 



Nepenthes, 129. 
Neptune, 134. 
Nereus, 133, 134. 
never sere, 139. 
next, 125. 
nice, 110. 
night-raven, 93. 
noise, 89. 

none can hear, 109. 
not unseen, 95. 
nuptial, 152. 

Oceanus, 134. 

oft converse, 125. 

old and haughty, 113. 

old swain, 133. 

Once more, 138. 

On his Deceased Wife, 153. 

On Shakespeare, 90. 

oozy, 152. 

ore, 152. 

orient, 114. 

Orpheus, 98, 105, 143. 

osier, 135. 

others . . . hair, 144. 

oughly, 130. 

ounce, 114. 

outwatch the Bear, 104. 

over-exquisite . . . evils, 122. 

pall, 104. 
pallet, 121. 
palmer, 117. 
Pan, 117, 120. 
Panope, 146. 
parching, 139. 
Parley, 119. 



INDEX 



161 



Parthenope, 135. 

Peer, 113, 130. 

pensioners, 100. 

perfect, 118. 

period, 127. 

perplexed, 113. 

pert, 116. 

Pestered, 111. 

Phillis, 96. 

Philomel, 102. 

Phabus, 144. 

Phcebus' wain, 118. 

pied, 95. 

pillared firmament, 127. 

Pilot of the Galilean Lake, The, 

147. 
pinfold, 112. 
plat, 103. 
pledge, 147. 
phght, 102, 123. 
plighted, 121. 
port, 121. 
possess, 100. 
presentments, 117. 
prevent, 127. 
privy paw, 149. 
Psyche, 137. 
puissant, 109. 
pulse, 130. 
purchase, 128. 
purfled, 137. 
Purification, 154. 
purple, 150. 

quaint, 117, 150. 
quarters, 112. 

M 



quest, 109. 
quills, 153. 
Quips, 94. 

Rain influence, 97. 

rank, 149. 

rapt, 101. 

rathe, 150. 

rebecks, 96. 

relation, 128. 

removed, 103. 

resemblance, 114. 

rife, 118. 

ripe, 114. 

rod reversed, 132. 

roses washed in dew, 93. 

rosy twine, 115. 

round, 116. 

rouse, 121. 

rout, 143. 

rugged, 146. 

rule, 122. 

rush-candle, 122. 

ruth, 152. 

Sabrina, 132. 

Sad, 102, 117. 

sadly, 125. 

saffron, 98. 

sage poets, 126. 

sager, 93. 

sampler, 131. 

sanguine flower, 146. 

sapphire-coloured throne, 89. 

Saturn's crew, 132. 

Satyrs, 141. 



162 



INDEX 



saw, 154. 

saws, 115. 

sceptred, 104. 

scrannel, 148. 

scrip, 128. 

Scylla, 120. 

seat of Jove, 140. 

secure, 96. 

sedge, 146. 

seeks to, 123. 

sensualty, 125. 

serene, 111. 

set off, 131. 

several, 112. 

Severn, 132. 

shatter, 139. 

She, 97. 

shepherd lad, 128. 

shepherd's trade, 143. 

shifts, 128. 

shroud, 121. 

shrouds, 116. 

shrunk thy streams, 149. 

Sicilian Muse, 149. 

Silence . . . wished, 127. 

silver-buskined Nymphs, 109. 

simples, 128. 

single, 118. 

Sirens, 119. 

Sisters . . . well, 140. 

slope, 115. 

slow-endeavouring art, 91. 

smoke, 129, 

some, 103. 

songs, 148. 

soothest, 132, 



sooty flag, 127. 

sorry grain, 131. 

soul, 98. 

sovran, 129. 

spared, 147. 

Spare Fast, 102. 

sparely, 150. 

sped, 148. 

spell, 107. 

spets, 116. 

Sphere-born, 89. 

spheres, 115. 

sphery chime, 137. 

Spicy, 96. 

spongy air, 117. 

spruce, 136. 

square, 121. 

squint, 124. 

stabled wolves, 126. 

star, 141. 

star of Arcady, 122. 

starred Ethiop queen, 100. 

starry quire, 115. 

star-ypointing, 91. 

state, 95, 101, 107, 110, 113. 

stead, 128. 

steep, the, 142. 

stole, 101, 118. 

stops, 122, 153. 

storied windows, 107. 

store of, 97. 

Straight, 95. 

strain, 145. 

stretched hills, 153. 

strong siding, 118. 

studious cloister's pale, 107, 



INDEX 



163 



Stygian, 92. 

swart star, 150. 

Sweet bird, 103. 

swilled insolence, 117. 

swinked, 121. 

Sylvan, 106, 120. 

Syrinx, 110. 

taint- worm, 141. 

talent, 153. 

tasselled, 109. 

tease, 131. 

Tells, 97. 

tells his tale, 95. 

Tethys, 134. 

thankless, 143. 

That, 130, 144. 

thatched pallet, 121. 

Thebes, 104. 

then, 126. 

The star, 115. 

Thestylis, 96. 

Thetis, 134. 

this Isle, 112. 

this mortal change, 112. 

this tract, 113. 

those. 111. 

thousands, 153. 

thrice-great Hermes, 104. 

thwarting, 109. 

Thyrsis, 96, 125. 

tinsel-slippered, 134. 

To, 125. 

To live with her, 94. 

took, 127. 

to-ruffled, 123. 

to seek, 123, 



to the shame of slow-endeavour- 
ing art, 91. 
touched my trembling ears, 144. 
Towered cities, 97. 
towered Cybele, 108. 
toy, 125. 
trace, 124. 
trains, 116. 
tresses, 135. 
tricks, 152. 
trip it, 94. 
Triton, 134. 
triumphs, 97. 
turkis, 135. 
twitched, 153. 
Two blissful twins, 137. 
two-handed engine, 149. 
Tyrian, 122. 
Tyrrhene shore, 113. 

unadorned, 112. 
unblenched, 124. 
uncessant, 143. 
uncouth, 92, 152. 
unenchanted, 123. 
unexempt condition, 130. 
unexpressive, 152. 
unharboured, 124. 
Unless, 120. 
unmoulding, 126. 
unowned, 124. 
unprincipled, 123. 
unreproved, 94. 
unseen, 103. 

unsphere . . . Plato, 104. 
unsunned, 123. 



164 



INDEX 



unusual stop, 127. 
unvalued, 92. 
unweeting, 126. 
unwithdrawing, 130. 
upland, 96. 
upon, 135. 
urchin, 133. 
use, 144, 150. 

Vesta, 101. 
virtue, 117. 
virtuous, 106, 128. 
vizored, 130. 
vocal, 119. 
votarist, 117. 

wakes, 116. 
Wanton, 94. 
Wassailers, 117. 
wattled cotes, 122. 
weanling, 142. 



weeds, 97, 123. 

well, 118. 

welter, 139. 

what boots it, 143. 

what recks it them, 148. 

what time, 121. 

white-thorn, 142. 

Who, 131. 

wicker hole, 122. 

WMnd me, 117. 

wink on, 123. 

wizard, 143. 

woods, 153. 

worm, 109. 

worthy . . 

wound, 137. 

wrath of Jove 

yclept, 93. 
yon, 102. 



guest, 148. 
131. 



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Howe. 

Southern Poets (Selections from). Edited by W. L. "Weber. 

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book I. Edited by George Armstrong 
Wauchope, Professor of English in the South Carolina College. 

Stevenson's Kidnapped. Edited by John Thompson Brown. 

Stevenson's Master of Ballantrae. Edited by H. A. White. 

Stevenson's Treasure Island. Edited by H. A. Vance, Professor of Eng- 
lish in the University of Nashville. 

Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Edited by Clifton Johnson. 

Tennyson's Shorter Poems. Edited by Charlics Read Nutter. 

Tennyson's The Princess. Edited by Wilson Farrand. 

Thackeray's Henry Esmond. Edited by John Bell Henneman, Uni- 
versity of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. 

Washington's Farewell Address, and Webster's First Bunker Hill Ora- 
tion. Edited by William T. Peck. 

John Woolman's Journal. 

Wordsworth's Shorter Poems. Edited by Edward Fulton. 



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